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I just loved her in this frame from S03E12, so I had to vector her :3Yep, her name's Ms. Peachbottom [link] ==========================================Software: Adobe Illustrator CS3Time: About 2,5 hoursOriginal: [link] SVG: [link] ==========================================My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic ©Hasbro and Lauren Faust | {
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Norbert Lammert, the president of the German Bundestag, said on Wednesday that he could not picture the Transatlantic Trade Investment Partnership (TTIP) being ratified by German parliamentarians without further information about how it was negotiated and put together.
"I see no chance that the Bundestag would ratify a trade agreement between the EU and the USA without involvement in how it came together or any say regarding alternatives," Lammert said in an interview with the Germany's FUNKE Media Group.
Lammert said he agreed with calls from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that all relevant documents pertaining to the negotiations should be made available to governments and parliaments of EU nations.
"I insist on that," said Lammert.
Under the current plans, the full text of TTIP will only be released once it is finished, leaving no chance for amendments by the EU or the US.
TTIP is facing growing resistance in Europe, where opponents argue the trade pact will tear down the EU's health, labor and environmental standards while empowering corporations. Protests against TTIP drawing up to 250,000 people from across Germany were held this month in Berlin.
Negotiations between the EU and US on TTIP have been going on since 2013. Earlier this month, the US hosted the 11th round of talks on the deal in Miami.
mz/kms (Reuters, AFP, dpa) | {
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via Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for CBS Radio Inc.
Lana Del Rey has confirmed that her 2012 song “Cola” was inspired by a “Harvey Weinstein-type character.” In an interview with MTV News, published today, Del Rey opened up about the song from her Paradise EP, and says that she’ll “definitely” retire it from her live performances (via MTV):
“When I wrote that song, I suppose I had a Harvey Weinstein/Harry Winston-type of character in mind,” she says of the track off her 2012 Paradise EP. “I envisioned, like, a benevolent, diamond-bestowing-upon-starlets visual, like a Citizen Kane or something. I’m not really sure. I thought it was funny at the time, and I obviously find it really sad now. I support the women who have come forward. I think they’re really brave for doing that.”
Page Six reported last month that there’s one line in “Cola” that got Weinstein’s attention. It goes “Ah, he’s in the sky with diamonds and he’s making me crazy,” but it sounds like “Harvey’s in the sky.” According to Page Six, the original line in fact included Harvey’s name, but when Weinstein heard that, he flipped out and asked Del Rey to remove it. This writer still hears it as “Harvey.” Decide for yourself below: | {
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Part of the journey is the end. The reckoning is near. The time has come. Sacrifices must be made. This is the real Avengers: Endgame.
So...which Avenger can grow the best mustache?
Robert Downey Jr. is facing off against co-stars Mark Ruffalo's and Chris Evans in the ultimate beauty competition. He posted on his Twitter page on Wednesday a collage of photos of each actor sporting a mustache—him at the Iron Man press conference in Tokyo in 2008, a pic of Evans at the launch of the Broadway play Lobby Hero in 2018, and an old portrait of Ruffalo, taken by photographer Jim Wright. | {
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Laurene Powell Jobs To Buy Stake In 'The Atlantic'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
The Atlantic magazine, founded in 1857 as a crusading publication by an anti-slavery group, will be acquired by the widow of the man behind the iPod and whose philanthropic organization is named for one of those very abolitionists.
Laurene Powell Jobs's Emerson Collective, named for Ralph Waldo Emerson, will buy a majority stake in The Atlantic. The current owner, David Bradley, has transformed the magazine in his eighteen years there, with a greater focus on politics and a refashioning of its finances.
Bradley will continue to hold a minority stake in the magazine and is to run it for at least the next three-to-five years, along with his executive and editorial team, which includes Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg. Emerson Collective is likely to acquire Bradley's remaining interest in several years. The sale should close within 60 days, according to Atlantic Media. Other Atlantic Media properties, including National Journal, Quartz and Government Executive Media Group are not included in the deal.
Media 'The Atlantic' Examines Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway 'The Atlantic' Examines Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Listen · 7:15 7:15
It is not a time of crisis for the venerable magazine. The Washington Post's media columnist, Margaret Sullivan, recently devoted a column to Atlantic Media's financial resurgence, saying its revenues from consulting, digital advertising, conferences and other resources enabled its journalism to be "very vital indeed" for a fractious era.
In a memo to staffers, Bradley, now 64, said he had been thinking about succession for two years, as his three sons showed little interest in entering media. "From the first, Laurene Powell Jobs sat atop the list," Bradley wrote. "Emerson Collective had begun to invest in serious journalism for its own sake." Jobs' organization, which is focused on education, immigration reform, the environment and social justice concerns, has also given grants to nonprofit news outlets such as Mother Jones and has a stake in the new digital start-up Axios and television and film production companies.
Jobs, the widow of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, hailed The Atlantic for its mission "to bring about equality for all people; to illuminate and defend the American idea; to celebrate American culture and literature; and to cover our marvelous and sometimes messy democratic experiment."
She is the latest investor whose wealth is built on a digital fortune to enter the world of news. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos acquired The Washington Post personally at a time of severe financial distress for the paper and has helped oversee a digitally-driven turnaround. E-bay co-founder Pierre Omidyar has experienced mixed results with his journalistic forays, with his most successful efforts at the The Intercept and the Honolulu Civil Beat. Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes bought the financially troubled New Republic magazine in 2012, only to sell it off several years later, declaring he had underestimated the challenge of reinventing the magazine for digital publishing.
The new vice chairman for The Atlantic will be one of Jobs' top aides, Peter Lattman, a former lawyer who worked at Goldman Sachs before becoming a journalist. He was most recently The New York Times' deputy business editor who oversaw media coverage before joining Emerson Collective.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. | {
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It was a hot morning late in July when the school opened. I trembled when I heard the patter of little feet down the dusty road, and saw the growing row of dark solemn faces and bright eager eyes facing me. First came Josie and her brothers and sisters. The longing to know, to be a student in the great school at Nashville, hovered like a star above this child woman amid her work and worry, and she studied doggedly. There were the Dowells from their farm over toward Alexandria: Fanny, with her smooth black face and wondering eyes; Martha, brown and dull; the pretty girl wife of a brother, and the younger brood. There were the Burkes, two brown and yellow lads, and tine haughty-eyed girl. Fat Reuben's little chubby girl came, with golden face and old gold hair, faithful and solemn. 'Thenie was on hand early,—a jolly, ugly, good-hearted girl, who slyly dipped snuff and looked after her little bow-legged brother. When her mother could spare her, 'Tildy came,—a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and tapering limbs; and her brother, correspondingly homely. And then the big boys: the hulking Lawrences; the lazy Neills, unfathered sons of mother and daughter; Hickman, with a stoop in his shoulders; and the rest.
There they sat, nearly thirty of them, on the rough benches, their faces shading from a pale cream to a deep brown, the little feet bare and swinging, the eyes full of expectation, with here and there a twinkle of mischief, and the hands grasping Webster's blue-back spelling-book. I loved my school, and the fine faith the children had in the wisdom of their teacher was truly marvelous. We read and spelled together, wrote a little, picked flowers, sang, and listened to stories of the world beyond the hill. At times the school would dwindle away, and I would start out. I would visit Mun Eddings, who lived in two very dirty rooms, and ask why little Lugene, whose flaming face seemed ever ablaze with the dark red hair uncombed, was absent all last week, or why I missed so often the inimitable rags of Mack and Ed. Then the father, who worked Colonel Wheeler's farm on shares, would tell me how the crops needed the boys; and the thin, slovenly mother, whose face was pretty when washed, assured me that Lugene must mind the baby. "But we'll start them again next week." When the Lawrences stopped, I knew that the doubt of the old folks about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero pro Archia Poeta in the simplest English with local applications, and usually convinced them—for a week or so.
On Friday nights I often went home with some of the children; sometimes to Doc Burke's farm. He was a great, loud, thin Black, ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres of hill and dale where he lived; but people said that he would surely fail, and the "white folks would get it all." His wife was a magnificent Amazon, with saffron face and shining hair, uncorseted and barefooted, and the children were strong and beautiful. They lived in a one-and-a half-room cabin in the hollow of the farm, near the spring. The front room was full of great fat white beds, scrupulously neat; and there were bad chromos on the walls, and a tired centre-table. In the tiny back kitchen I was often invited to "take out and help" myself to fried chicken and wheat biscuit, "meat" and corn pone, string beans and berries. At first I used to be a little alarmed at the approach of bedtime in the one lone bedroom, but embarrassment was very deftly avoided. First, all the children nodded and slept, and were stowed away in one great pile of goose feathers; next, the mother and the father discreetly slipped away to the kitchen while I went to bed; then, blowing out the dim light, they retired in the dark. In the morning all were up and away before I thought of awakening. Across the road, where fat Reuben lived, they all went outdoors while the teacher retired, because they did not boast the luxury of a kitchen. | {
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized identity politics and emphasized the value of diversity of belief in a commencement speech he gave Wednesday.
The prime minister addressed a kind of diversity often ignored by left-wing politicians in his speech to graduates of New York University, according to National Newswatch.
“We are not going to arrive at mutual respect, which is where we solve common problems if we cocoon ourselves in an ideological, social or intellectual bubble,” Trudeau said. “Our celebration of difference needs to extend to differences of values and belief, too. Diversity includes political and cultural diversity, it includes a diversity of perspectives and approaches to solving problems.”
WATCH:
Trudeau lambasted what he termed humanity’s “tribal mindset,” or the proclivity of people to sort themselves into groups based on certain traits. Instead, he urged the graduates to reach across lines, arguing that it would be easier for them to convince people of certain viewpoints if the graduates first show that they, themselves, are open to new viewpoints. (RELATED: Student Group Cancels Event After 1,800% Hike In Security Cost)
“This is the antithesis of the polarization, the aggressive nationalism, the identity politics that have grown so common of late,” the prime minister stressed. “It’s harder, of course — it’s always been easier to divide than unite. But mostly, it requires true courage because if you want to bring people around to your way of thinking, you need to first show them that you are open to theirs, that you are willing to enter into a conversation that mind change your mind.”
Trudeau pointed to former Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier as a key individual who recognized the potential behind ideological diversity. He did not, however, address the high-profile administrative scolding of teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd at the university named after Laurier in fall 2017 after Shepherd dared to show a video featuring University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]. | {
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Mike Hazen was a frequent visitor to McCoy Stadium during his Red Sox tenure, which officially came to an end earlier this week when he accepted Arizona’s offer to become its general manager. Hazen served as Boston’s farm director for several years. | {
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If you find that service at your favorite restaurant isn’t as speedy as it once was, don’t blame your waiter — instead, blame all the people who spend tons of time messing around on their smartphones when they go out to eat instead of looking at a menu and ordering their food.
The San Francisco Globe spotted a Craigslist post from local restaurant owners this week who described how they were trying to figure out why they were getting so many more complaints about service speed on their Yelp pages. To get a better idea, they decided to watch footage from a typical day at their restaurant and compare it to archive footage they had of a typical day at their restaurant in 2004.
What they found was that many customers spent lots of time playing around on their phones when they were first seated and thus weren’t even ready to order drinks or appetizers when waiters came around. What’s more, they were much more likely to waste time taking pictures of their food before eating it and thus spend more time in the restaurant than they normally would.
While it may seem like all the time people play around with their phones is small on a case-by-case basis, it cumulatively adds up to a much less efficient restaurant.
“Given in most cases the customers are constantly busy on their phones it took an average of 20 minutes more from when they were done eating until they requested a check,” the restaurant owners write. “Furthermore once the check was delivered it took 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago for them to pay and leave.”
Go check out the full post at The San Francisco Globe by clicking the source link below. | {
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Fiction writers — novelists, short storytellers and aspiring novices — tend to be white in Seattle. To Sonora Jha, Hugo House’s writer-in-residence, writers of color have been underrepresented. While she is now seeing more diversity within classes at Hugo House, its mission could be the latest victim of gridlock in Olympia.
The fallout of the Washington State Legislature’s failure to pass a $4 billion capital budget last summer, has created worry for the organization.
“Hugo House is kind of like an extended living room. … It’s more than a gathering place, it’s about making local connections,” said Jane Wong, a former Hugo House instructor and a poet. “It’s not a bubble, but a familiar space for new writers, emerging writers … It has this warmth to it.”
The recent struggles for Hugo House all trace back to a 2016 Washington Supreme Court decision — the so-called Hirst ruling — which blocks landowners from digging new wells if they can't prove it won’t threaten nearby stream levels needed for fish. The ruling essentially halted construction of homes and businesses in many rural areas.
In 2017, Washington Senate Republicans threatened to deny the state budget's passage for $4 billion worth of construction-related projects if House Democrats wouldn’t give them the deal they wanted on the Hirst issue. The House Democrats’ final offer fell short of what the GOP wanted.
This resulted in the GOP’s refusal to pass the $4 billion capital budget. That proposed budget included $900 million for statewide school fix-it work, $130 million for work at the University of Washington and several other Seattle projects that range from classical music venues to a Filipino community center.
Those stalled Seattle appropriations also included roughly $1 million to help build a new Hugo House.
Hugo House building is being constructed in its old location in Capitol Hill.
Three Seattle authors — Linda Breneman, Frances McCue and Andrea Lewis — founded Hugo House in 1996 as a place to nurture writers. They named the establishment after Seattle poet Richard Hugo, who died of leukemia in 1982.
The original Hugo House resided across from Cal Anderson Park in a building built in 1902 that had previously held a funeral home and a theater.
“It was a cool Victorian building, but it was falling apart,” said Tree Swenson, executive director of Huge House. The old Hugo House had wasted space and tended to flood.
For now, the organization resides in First Hill, next to the Frye Art Museum. The old structure was torn down and is set to be replaced by a six-story condominium building, with the first floor dedicated to Hugo House. Whether or not they move back hinges on if they receive enough funding.
The first floor will have six classrooms instead of four, a modern auditorium and will be designed to accommodate more students and event attendees simultaneously. A limited liability corporation of Hugo House supporters will own the new structure.
Hugo House has raised about $4.8 million for construction, but it still needs slightly more than $1 million to start the work. That happens to be the amount the Legislature was supposed to appropriate before the state capital budget stalled.
Tree Swenson at the new Hugo House building.
Another “million is a pretty heavy lift for us…We don’t have deep-pocketed donors. We’re more of a grassroots organization,” Swenson said.
Consequently, a move-back date in early 2018 has been delayed indefinitely, and plans to expand classes and accommodate more students are in limbo as well.
Hugo House had been going through a growth spurt. In 2014, it served 2,125 writing students of all types — doubling its 2012 figure. It also hosts about 100 literary events a year.
“There nothing remotely like this in the city…It strengthens the community. It creates awareness around what is happening with local literature,” said Peter Mountford, a former Hugo House writer-in-residence and published novelist.
The students ages range from the teens to 80-year-olds — a much wider spread than students in college creative writing classes. Many Hugo House students also tend to be more interested and invested in these classes compared to some college students who take creative writing as an English requirement, said Wong, who has taught at Pacific Lutheran University and now Western Washington University.
Many writers who attend classes and events are looking to connect with other writers. “Writing is one of the most solitary of the arts,” Swenson said.
Writers say Hugo House fosters the back-and-forth of ideas, criticism and encouragement — especially when writers hit inevitable mental blocks. It also allows for beginners to dip their toes into writing.
“Hugo House is a great [place] get away from the solitude and bounce ideas off people,” Mountford said. “It keeps me fresh as a writer.”
No end is in sight on the deadlock regarding the Hirst ruling and the capital budget. So far, each party has been unmovable and persistent in criticizing the other side on the issue.
While Democrats have a decent chance of taking control of the Washington Senate in a November special election for the 45th District in Seattle's northeastern suburbs, the Senate GOP would still hold a trump card.
Even if the Democrats passed a capital budget, the Legislature would still need 60 percent approval of the bonds needed to finance that package. The Democrats significantly fall short of that percentage in both chambers.
So for now, Hugo House's future will hang on whether the two sides — with track records of endless deadlocks — reach a compromise on both the Hirst and capital budget issues. | {
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Manifestación de la CUP el día de la Diada. / ATLAS
Los cinco acusado de quemar fotografías del Rey en la manifestación anticapitalista de la pasada Diada han dado plantón este miércoles al juez de la Audiencia Nacional Fernando Andreu, quien los había citado a declarar como investigados a través de videoconferencia. Los encausados, que ya anunciaron el pasado viernes que no acudirían a los juzgados, están imputados por un presunto delito de injurias a la Corona.
Entre los investigados se encuentra Aitor Blanc, portavoz de SOM Gramenet en el Ayuntamiento de Santa Coloma de Gramenet, candidatura en la que participa Podemos. El resto de citados son Jordi Almiñana, Nora Miralles, Ivan Altimira y Roger Santacana.
Miralles formó parte de la candidatura de la CUP en Barcelona, como suplente, en las elecciones autonómicas del 2015, mientras que Altimira es asesor del grupo municipal de los 'cupaires' en el ayuntamiento de la capital catalana. Santacana también está vinculado al partido anticapitalista y figuraba en las listas de Manresa.
UNA "HUMILDE DECISIÓN"
El pasado viernes, Altimira subrayó que ninguno de los cinco investigados comparecerán en los juzgados, ya que habían tomado "la humilde decisión de desobedecer". Lo dijo en una rueda de prensa en la plaza del Rei de Barcelona ante una pancarta que rezaba 'Ni Rey ni miedo. Desobedecemos' y en la que se podía ver una foto en llamas de Felipe VI.
Tanto Altimira como Miralles defendieron en este acto que no han cometido un delito por haber quemado una foto o páginas de la Constitución. Asimismo, recalcaron que no quieren "pedir perdón por no reconocer unas instituciones cuya actitud es fascista".
La fiscalía abrió diligencias tras los sucesos en la concentración anticapitalista de la Diada --organizada por la CUP y otras entidades como Alerta, Arran y Endavant-- que recorrió el pasado Onze de Setembre las calles de Barcelona, y pidió imputar a los citados por presuntas injurias a la Corona. Las imágenes del Rey quemadas estaban impresas en hojas de papel que, en el reverso, contenían una página de la Constitución. | {
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Ältere Geschwister haben oft regen Kontakt und bieten einander Rat und Trost Neues Fact Sheet zeigt auf Basis Daten des Deutschen Alterssurveys wie sich Geschwisterbeziehungen im Alter gestalten. Mehr...
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zum Newsarchiv | {
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天皇の代替わりに伴う皇室行事「大嘗祭（だいじょうさい）」への公費支出について、秋篠宮さまが宗教色が強いとして宮内庁に疑義を呈した際、代替案として、宮中の「神嘉殿（しんかでん）」を活用して費用を抑え、それを天皇家の私費で賄うという具体案を示していたことがわかった。
使用後に解体・撤去される「大嘗宮（だいじょうきゅう）」を新設しない分、大幅に費用を抑えられる。こうした考えは前長官の代から伝えていたが、宮内庁は前回の代替わり時に議論を尽くしたなどとし、本格的に検討しなかった。
複数の関係者が明らかにした。政府の方針では、来年の大嘗祭の関係費は前回１９９０（平成２）年の２２億４９００万円から２７億１９００万円へと増大。皇居・東御苑に新造される大嘗宮の設営費関連だけで１９億７００万円かかる。
関係者によると、秋篠宮さまは「天皇の代替わりに伴う諸行事は国民の理解のもとで執り行われるべきだ」との考えで、天皇陛下の退位の意向が内々に明らかになったことを受け、風岡典之・前宮内庁長官（２０１２～１６年）に「公費支出はなじまない」と伝え、今の山本信一郎長官にも繰り返し意見を述べてきた。政府が公費支出を決める前の段階で宮内庁に熟考を求める意図があったという。
意見した際に「大嘗宮を建てず、宮中にある神嘉殿で執り行っても儀式の心が薄れることはないだろう」とも述べた。神嘉殿は国中の神々をまつる神殿で、収穫に感謝する毎年の新嘗（にいなめ）祭が行われている場。これを使い、天皇家の私的な積立金のうち数億円で賄える範囲で実施を、という提案だった。
秋篠宮さまは誕生日を前にした… | {
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Last month, the swindling of more than 200 billion ISK resulted in an actual run on a virtual bank in EVE Online. The best part? The loot was sold IRL - just $5,000.
No, griefers from Something Awful are not claiming responsibility. Not that any of them would have the patience to play nice long enough to become a controller for EBank. User Ricdic was, and then he took the dough and sold it off, he says in order to place a down payment on a house and pay medical bills.
The heist dwarfs the earlier 100 billion ISK embezzled by an in-game investments manager. But 250 billion ISK was just 8 percent of the bank's 2.8 trillion held in deposits. Still a tidy sum, but hardly the whole kitty. That didn't stop EVE Ebankers from rushing the teller windows once word passed of Ricdic's dirty deeds.
He has since been kicked out of EVE, as selling in-game currency for real-world value is a no-no according to the TOS. Had he kept the ISK in-game, he would not have been sanctioned - by CCP anyway. In-game depositors may have had something to say and/or do about it.
Billions Stolen in Online Robbery [BBC] | {
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Last week the New York Times (10/21/16) had a story from the trial of the aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who partially closed the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and New York City, allegedly to punish a New Jersey mayor who had refused to endorse Christie. The Times headline read:
Christie Aide Testifies She Thought Bridge Lane Closings Were a Traffic Study
That’s an odd claim, I guess. But that’s not all that Bridget Anne Kelly, former Christie aide, had to say at the trial—as Times reporter Kate Zernike slipped in at the end of her lead paragraph:
The former aide to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey at the center of the political plot to close access lanes at the George Washington Bridge broke her long silence in federal court on Friday, saying that the idea to close the lanes had been sold to her as a policy matter to move traffic more rapidly across the Hudson River, and that the governor had signed off on it.
Wait—”the governor had signed off on it”? You mean former presidential candidate and top Trump surrogate Chris Christie has been directly linked in sworn testimony to the biggest scandal of his administration? That seems like bigger news than the fact that an obscure former state employee offered a rather implausible alibi at her trial.
As it turns out, most other news outlets did not share the Times‘ sense of newsworthiness. Here’s some representative headlines:
“Ex-Aide: Christie Knew of Bridgegate Plan Before ‘Traffic Problems’ Email,” USA Today (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Ex-Christie Aide: I Told Gov. About ‘Bridgegate’ Lane Closures,” NBCNews.com (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Tearful Christie Aide on Trial Says She Told Governor of ‘Traffic Study,'” Chicago Tribune (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Bridgegate Trial: Aide Says Christie Knew of Traffic-Snarling Plan Well in Advance,” NPR (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Former Christie Aide Bridget Kelly Testifies Governor Knew About Bridge Lane Closures a Month Before They Happened,” New York Magazine (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Tearful Bridgegate Defendant Says Christie Knew About Scheme, Threw Bottle at Her,” Politico (10/21/16)
(10/21/16) “Bridgegate Defendant: Christie Was ‘Fine’ With Lane Closures,” Philly.com (10/21/16)
What the New York Times did is called “burying the lead”—hiding the most important aspect of the story—even though, technically, it’s right there at the end of the lead paragraph. In another story this week, Times readers had to read quite a bit farther down to get to the real point of the story.
That story would be “Why the Justice Dept. Will Have Far Fewer Watchdogs in Polling Places,” by Eric Lichtblau (10/24/16). For the first half of the story, the answer to the question posed by the story seems fairly straightforward:
For the first time since the days of poll taxes and literacy tests a half-century ago, the Justice Department will be sharply restricted in how it can deploy some of its most powerful weapons to deter voter intimidation in the presidential election. Because of a Supreme Court ruling three years ago, the department will send special election observers inside polling places in parts of only four states on Election Day, a significant drop from 2012, when it sent observers to jurisdictions in 13 states…. Since 1965, federal officials have sent about 32,000 observers to jurisdictions with histories of harassing minority voters or even outright denying them access to the ballot. But officials say their hands are now tied by a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result of that decision, in Shelby County v. Holder, the Justice Department will send observers only to jurisdictions where it already has court approval. That encompasses seven counties or jurisdictions in Alaska, California, Louisiana and New York.
So the answer is: because the Supreme Court won’t let them? Well, not exactly, as we start to learn in the 12th paragraph of the 23-paragraph story:
The Shelby ruling did not specifically address the Justice Department’s authority to send observers inside polling places. But [Civil Rights Division head Vanita] Gupta said department lawyers had interpreted the decision to mean that officials could send observers only into jurisdictions where there was already a relevant court order regarding voting practices…. That broad interpretation has puzzled some legal scholars on both the left and the right. “I was a little surprised by the Justice Department’s decision, to be honest,” Derek T. Muller, a conservative scholar on election law at Pepperdine University School of Law, said. Mr. Muller said he believed that the Justice Department could legally send observers to jurisdictions not specifically covered by court orders. “Until a court tells them otherwise, that provision is still on the books,” he said.
If Justice’s decision was puzzling across the political spectrum, perhaps the piece could have signaled that early on, giving the Obama administration some responsibility for how it chooses to enforce the law—rather than reporting that “the Justice Department will be sharply restricted,” as though it had no say in the matter.
Jim Naureckas is the editor of FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @JNaureckas.
You can send a message to the New York Times at [email protected], or write to public editor Liz Spayd at [email protected] (Twitter:@NYTimes or @SpaydL). Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. | {
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If you hear the water calling to you, but don’t have the space to store or transport a kayak, an inflatable may be just the thing you’ve been looking for. Tough enough for the military, and packable enough for even the tiniest apartment or car, inflatable kayaks offer unparalleled ease-of-use. A great way to get you paddling, they’re generally more affordable than standard hard-shell kayaks, too!
If you’re new to kayaking, you may be confused by the options, and it can be challenging to assess the strengths and weaknesses of inflatable kayaks. We’re sure you have plenty of questions, and we want to steer you in the direction of solid answers. To that end, we’d like to offer a guide and some careful reviews to help you get a sense of what you should consider–and where you might begin your search for the perfect ‘yak for you.
Best Inflatable Kayaks
Buying Guide: What Do You Need to Know When Considering an Inflatable Kayak?
Durability
We’d like to discuss the elephant in the room immediately, dispel your concerns, and lay the truth out quickly and clearly.
Inflatable kayaks can be tough, durable, and extremely puncture resistant. How tough? Two examples should suffice to answer this question. Both Navy S.E.A.L.s and professional whitewater guides use inflatable boats in the most demanding conditions.
That’s because the best inflatables are constructed from incredibly robust materials, feature multiple air chambers, and sport air-tight valves. Often, they’ll have a covering made from layers of really tough rubber or PVC, and though not puncture-proof, they can take more of a beating than you probably imagine.
And because they’re filled with air, they can shrug off hard impacts that might crack a hard-shelled kayak. They can also survive abrasions and pokes from rocks, stumps, and branches. If they couldn’t, you wouldn’t see them on white water and in naval assaults.
The myth that these are overgrown pool toys can be put to bed, but let’s be honest. People don’t buy inflatables because they’re tougher than hard shells, yet well-made inflatable ‘yaks can stand up to the worst you’ll dish out.
As in most things, though, you get what you pay for. If you want ultra-tough, prepare to see the price gap between an inflatable and a hard shell shrink.
Video of torture testing an inflatable kayak–impressive!!!
Inflatable kayak vs rapids
Transportability, Weight, and Storage
This is where inflatable kayaks really shine. Because they’re inflated for use and pack down to a reasonable size, they’re ridiculously easy to transport compared to a hard shell. Want to bring a kayak along on a camping trip? Need to ride the bus to the local lake? Have a bad back and can’t handle lifting 90 pounds overhead to load a ‘yak onto your car?
No problem!
Inflatable kayaks are relatively light and far more transportable than their hard-shelled alternatives. And they take up no more space than a large sleeping bag, making them easy to store in an apartment or a small home. They’re also a snap to toss in the trunk of your car for a day on the water. Try that with a 14-foot hard shell!
Stability and Safety
This is another area where inflatable kayaks are fantastic. Because they tend to be a bit wider than hard shells, and because they’re positively buoyant at the edges, they’re very, very stable.
In fact, these designs are often more resistant to tipping than most recreational kayaks. They’re also generally easy to right and re-enter from the water. This combination makes them some of the safest boats around.
Video shows instructions for re-entering inflatable kayaks and demonstrates stability:
Tracking, Speed, and Handling
Inflatables are plenty durable and ultra-transportable; that’s where they’re at their best. But tracking, speed, and handling aren’t their strong suits.
While the very best of the bunch can get close to the performance of a hard-shell, there are two basic physics problems that bedevil inflatable kayaks.
High gunnels/lots of rocker – The basic design of inflatables demands that they have relatively high sides and lots of rocker. And with high bows, sterns, and gunnels, they catch the wind easily and tend to have poor tracking compared to hard shells. This also makes them handle poorly in high seas, though they are extremely buoyant.
The basic design of inflatables demands that they have relatively high sides and lots of rocker. And with high bows, sterns, and gunnels, they catch the wind easily and tend to have poor tracking compared to hard shells. This also makes them handle poorly in high seas, though they are extremely buoyant. Low weight – Great for transportation, the inflatable’s low weight can be a liability on the water. It makes the boat more susceptible to being pushed by the wind and lifted by waves, adding to the problems it already faces.
Practically, the difference you’ll notice in an inflatable is that it’ll be harder to paddle and more difficult to keep moving in a straight line than a similar hard shell. They’ll also tend to waggle more with each paddle stroke.
Most offer a fixed or detachable skeg to improve handling and tracking. But generally, as with questions of durability, you get what you pay for here, too.
Maintenance
There’s a bit more upkeep required with inflatables in comparison to hard shells.
Dry before you pack – To get the most from your kayak, you need to take care of it. When you’ve finished your paddle, give your kayak a quick rinse with clean water and let it air dry before packing it away. Folding it up wet will encourage mold and mildew and shorten the service life of your ‘yak. Plus, it can lead to some really foul-smelling boats!
To get the most from your kayak, you need to take care of it. When you’ve finished your paddle, give your kayak a quick rinse with clean water and let it air dry before packing it away. Folding it up wet will encourage mold and mildew and shorten the service life of your ‘yak. Plus, it can lead to some really foul-smelling boats! Bring a patch kit with you – inflatables are tough, but so was the Titanic! Always bring a patch kit with you in case you puncture your kayak.
Preparation
A final thing to consider is that you’ll need a few minutes to inflate your ‘yak before you hit the water. This is not as big of a deal as you might think, and it takes little more time than unloading a hard shell from your car or truck.
Video showing a woman inflating a kayak in 4 minutes:
Inflatable Kayak Reviews
Sea Eagle Inflatable 380X Explorer – Our Pick!
Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Tandem – rated for three passengers Capacity: 750 lbs. Weight: 40 lbs. Length: 12’ 6” Width: 3’ 3” Sea Eagle’s 380X Explorer is the tandem kayak that all other inflatables should be compared against. It’s built for fun, and lets you enjoy the water with a friend or two, given that it’s rated for three people. It’s also been certified as capable for up to Class IV whitewater, and if that’s something you think you’d enjoy, the Explorer is a fantastic option. This kayak is at home in waves, surf, and whitewater–no question, and users report rock-solid stability. If you do manage to flip this kayak, its open design makes it very easy to re-enter from the water. It comes equipped with two comfortable seats, but there’s plenty of room for a third passenger, a cooler, or whatever gear you might want to bring with you. The Explorer relies on three chambers: port, starboard, and floor, with three recessed, one-way valves. There’s an inflation gauge on both sides, so there’s no guesswork when prepping this ‘yak for the water. This kayak’s toughness is legendary. Constructed from 1000 denier reinforced PVC, it’ll stand up to some pretty serious abuse. Don’t worry about landing on beaches, running a river, or slamming into a rock here and there. This boat can take it. But it is an inflatable, and knives and sharp metal are something to watch. Inflatables aren’t known for their tracking and handling, but the Explorer comes with a removable skeg to improve these characteristics. And while you can’t expect the performance of a sleek hard shell, this ‘yak is a solid performer compared to other inflatables. Users report that the entire package–kayak, pump, and paddles–gets heavy fast, so don’t let the relatively light weight of the kayak itself fool you! And the Explorer is a premium product sporting a premium price-tag, so if you’re on a tight budget, this may not be the kayak for you. PROS Stable
Tough
Lots of space for passengers and gear
Inflation gauges
Certified for serious whitewater CONS Total package is on the heavy side
Expensive!
Advanced Elements AE1007 Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Tandem – rated for two passengers Capacity: 550 lbs. Weight: 52 lbs. Length: 15’ Width: 32” Advanced Elements’ AE1007 is about as close as you’ll come to hard-shell performance in an inflatable. Supported by a foldable frame and sporting a rigid bow and stern, this ‘yak will cut the water much like a conventional design. Offered with a skeg, tracking and handling are excellent, and this kayak is probably the best of the boats we reviewed in these respects. The AE1007 is a tandem design, and it comes equipped with two removable and repositionable seats. Most kayakers will find it quite spacious, though there’s surprisingly little room for gear while rigged for tandem paddling. It’s easy to convert to a solo kayak, though, giving you plenty of space if that’s what you need. This ‘yak relies on a tough, three-ply fabric and six separate air chambers to provide buoyancy. Properly inflated, it’s a safe way to enjoy your time on the water. Expect excellent stability, and with an open design, you can be assured of easy re-entry should you end up in the water. Customers complain that setup can be complicated by the folding design. Drying can be an issue, too, as the exterior fabric stays wet for a while. Keep in mind that this kayak is on the heavy end for inflatables, as well. PROS Stable
Excellent tracking and handling CONS Heavy
Complicated setup
Stays wet for a while
Not much space for gear when rigged as a tandem
Advanced Elements Lagoon 1 Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Single Capacity: 250 lbs. Weight: 23 lbs. Length: 8’ 4” Width: 34” Advanced Elements’ Lagoon, like their AE1007, uses an innovative design to improve handling and tracking. In this small kayak, rigid panels define the shape of the bow and stern. While they go to some length to close the performance gap between inflatables and hard shells, don’t expect miracles. Users report that this kayak leaves them feeling secure, so stability shouldn’t be an issue. But keep in mind that this boat is intended for calm waters, as its name suggests. And despite the narrow, rigid bow and stern, the Lagoon’s handling isn’t first-rate. Expect some ‘waggling’ from side-to-side with each stroke, and don’t anticipate awesome tracking in a stiff breeze. Designed for a single paddler, the seat is comfortable, but paddlers with longer legs may feel a tad confined. Storage space is minimal unless you lash gear to the bow bungees, but this yak is pretty small. If you’re looking for more space, you’ll probably want to consider some of the tandems. Setup is easy and inflation can be done in a snap, so you’ll be on the water in no time! PROS Stable
Light
Easy setup CONS Poor handling and tracking
No space for gear
Can be a tight squeeze for taller paddlers
Driftsun Voyager 2 Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Tandem Capacity: 450 lbs. Weight: 27 lbs. Length: 10’ Width: 35” Driftsun’s voyager is a tandem inflatable offering plenty of reasons for a close look. Featuring comfortable, back-supporting seating for two paddlers, if you’re looking for a smaller kayak with a well-conceived design, this might be the boat for you. It’s made from tough 840 denier nylon with a PVC tarpaulin bottom. While not as durable as some of the other boats we reviewed, this kayak is robust enough for what you’re likely to throw at it on a lake or calm river. It’s not designed for whitewater, but for recreational paddling, that’s really not an issue. It’s also easy to inflate, so you can get into your adventures quickly. To improve handling, it features a removable skeg, but as usual, don’t expect miracles. ‘Waggling,’ however, is less pronounced than in other models we reviewed, putting this ‘yak closer to the head of the line. Stability is excellent, and in the worst of cases, this ‘yak should be easy to right and re-enter from the water. It features spray skirts both fore and aft, and even rigged for two, there’s plenty of room for gear in both bow and stern. If you need more space, this kayak can also be adjusted for a single paddler, giving you ample room for whatever you might want to bring along. PROS Stable
Easy setup
Space for gear
Comfortable seats CONS Not as tough as some competitors
Intex Challenger K1 Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Single Capacity: 220 lbs. Weight: 27 lbs. Length: 9’ Width: 2’ 6” If you’re looking for fun, but don’t have a lot to spend, the Intex Challenger K1 might be the kayak for you. Lightweight, inexpensive, and safe, this budget-friendly ‘yak can deliver good times if you keep your expectations reasonable. The K1 is designed for a single paddler, and larger adults may find the hull a tight squeeze. It features an inflatable seat and footrest, but don’t expect any room for gear. Users report that this little ‘yak is stable, but its handling and tracking aren’t great. In practice, that translates into a fair amount of ‘waggling’ as you paddle, despite the equipped skeg. But while the K1 isn’t the boat to choose for an expedition, it’s more than adequate for a day on the lake or a quiet river. Customers report no trouble with stability. It’s easy to set up, though a bit hard to dry out at the end of the day due to the enclosed bow. We recommend letting it sit in the sun if you have time, and be sure to search the nooks and crannies for water with a dry towel. Be realistic: this is a budget product, and it delivers budget performance. The skeg frequently falls off, for instance, and you can’t expect it to have the performance of inflatables that cost ten times as much. This is not the most durable inflatable, and it’s best kept away from impacts and sharp objects. But if you’re looking for low-priced fun, you could do a lot worse. PROS Stable
Really inexpensive!
Light
Easy setup CONS Hard to dry
Poor handling and tracking
No space for gear
Can be a tight squeeze for larger paddlers
Durability
Saturn Whitewater Kayak Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Tandem Capacity: 700 lbs. Weight: 50 lbs. Length: 13’ Width: 3’ Saturn built its reputation supplying inflatable dinghies, and it turned that experience and know-how to the world of kayaking with its whitewater model. Relying on very high pressure, this is as rigid an inflatable as you’ll find, and it’s every bit up to the tasks of whitewater kayaking. That’s a great feature in a boat that’s easily portable and just as easy to store at home. Made from durable PVC, this ‘yak is designed to take impacts and shrug off abrasions. Its deck is self-bailing, a nice feature on a boat that’s sure to have water rush over its gunnels. That floor is also a full 6 inches thick, shielding you from bumps. And multiple D-ring anchors allow you to rig one or two seats to your liking, allowing adjustability and easy conversion from tandem to single. Tracking is not really an issue in whitewater, and even hard-shelled kayaks designed for these adventures turn on a dime. On calm water, expect some problems keeping this kayak pointed where you intend to go, though you can rely on solid stability. Of course, this design is very easy to right again, and re-entry should be no issue. But be warned, this boat is by no means lightweight. PROS Stable
Tough
Self-bailing
Super rigid CONS Poor tracking
Heavy
Sevylor Big Basin Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Triple – seating for three passengers Capacity: 490 lbs. Weight: 34.8 lbs. Length: 12’ 3” Width: 3” 1” Sevylor is a trusted name in inflatables, and in collaboration with Coleman, they’ve developed the Big Basin. The first thing you’ll notice about this kayak is seating for three adults–that’s right–three! And despite being only a bit over 12 feet long, there’s space fore and aft for gear, too. Before you load this kayak down and jump in with two friends, pay close attention to its maximum capacity! The Big Basin’s seats are comfortable, and its three-chamber construction, heavy duty PVC, and tarpaulin bottom are tough and buoyant. While equipped with spray skirts at the bow and stern, this isn’t a whitewater kayak, and it’s best kept to calm waters. Handling, aided by an attachable skeg, is about what you’d expect, and the Big Basin is firmly middle-of-the-pack in this regard. It’s stable, and users report no issues with tipping. That said, if you do end up overturned, its open design is easy to right and re-enter. Be careful about the removable skeg. In shallow water, it can strike bottom and fall off. And some users report bladder failure over time, a quality control issue you shouldn’t ignore. That fault notwithstanding, most users report hassle-free fun. PROS Stable
Easy setup
Seating for 3 adults
Space for gear CONS Low maximum capacity
Quality control issues
Sevylor Quikpak K5 Check out the latest price on:
Amazon Design: Solo Capacity: 250 lbs. Weight: 25.5 lbs. Length: 10’ Width: 2’ 10” The Quikpak shares many features with the other Quikpak series like its quick setup and durable construction. Since it only takes a few minutes to set up, you’ll be able to spend more time actually kayaking. The Quikpak K5 is built from 24 gauge PVC and is more than capable of handling frequent lake kayaking. Inflating and deflating is straightforward, and the valves use high-quality locking points. Like the other Quikpak kayaks, the K5 has anti-leak protection. Furthermore, each one comes with multiple air chambers so it doesn’t deflate. Overall, the construction is solid and allows the K5 to last a long time. PROS Inflates easily
sturdy
Durable lining CONS Instruction can be confusing
Slow
Check out the latest price on:
Amazon
Design: Tandem Capacity: 400 lbs. Weight: 25.5 lbs. Length: 10’ 3” Width: 3’
The Explorer K2 is designed for riding on mild rivers and lakes, with a low profile but visible graphics so it’s highly visible. The detachable skeg helps improve directional stability, and the inflatable seat is adjustable. Ideal for kayaking with a friend, it is easy to set up and should not take more than a few minutes.
The Explorer K2 is made of tough vinyl, and its I-beam floor provides extra rigidity and thanks to the comfortable seats you’ll be at ease as you paddle. A repair patch kit is included and you also get a Coast Guard ID. The package also comes with an Intex high output pump and a couple of 86” aluminum bars.
PROS Easy setup
Quickly inflation/deflation
Comfortable CONS Not designed for long trips
Skeg can become loose
Whether you’re on a tight budget or looking for a premium inflatable, one of the kayaks we’ve reviewed should fit the bill. Which boat is best for you depends on what you need, but any of these can get you on the water and having fun.
Our choice is the Sea Eagle Explorer. Perhaps the toughest of the kayaks we reviewed, it’s Earth-stable, handles relatively well, and accommodates three people and plenty of gear for your day out. We really appreciate that the Explorer takes durability to the next level, because issues with buoyancy or punctures were the number one problem we encountered in our reviews.
But don’t think this kayak is limited to whitewater. While sturdy and stable enough for Class IV rapids, it’s just as at home on a quiet lake where its handling and tracking are more than respectable.
If the premium price-tag on the Explorer threatens to crush your budget, you might want to look at the Seyvlor Big Basin or the Driftsun Voyager 2. Both are worthy ‘yaks that won’t break the bank. Whichever you choose, prepare for loads of fun!
Rubik’s Cubes make a perfect gift for any occasion. Learn more about this amazing puzzle here.
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Best-selling author Michael Pollan became famous telling us that to eat healthy is to eat simply—just like our grandmothers did. Problem is, Grandma didn’t live in the Information Age, the age of the 25,000-product supermarket, Dietary Guidelines, and all those superfood health claims. It should be simple. But it really isn’t—not with this much daily nutrition noise to contend with.
Consider nutrition science, flip-flopping over the humble egg: villainized as an artery-clogging cholesterol bomb in the 1980s, now a centerpiece of the healthy breakfast (or dinner) plate while activists focus on the well-being of the chickens.
Pollan is right, mostly: The basic rules of healthy eating are simple. But diet is also in the details, as our nutrition mistakes illustrate. In the crazy modern food world, you want to keep your eye on the big picture, but pay attention to the small print, too. | {
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Barton Gellman is a critically honored author, journalist, and blogger. In 2013, Gellman shot to prominence as one of three journalists worldwide to be entrusted with leaked documents by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. This article first appeared on The Century Foundation’s website
On September 24, I gave a keynote presentation at Purdue University about the NSA, Edward Snowden, and national security journalism in the age of surveillance. It was part of the excellent Dawn or Doom colloquium, which I greatly enjoyed. The organizers live-streamed my talk and promised to provide me with a permalink to share.
After unexplained delays, I received a terse e-mail from the university last week. Upon advice of counsel, it said, Purdue “will not be able to publish your particular video” and will not be sending me a copy. The conference hosts, once warm and hospitable, stopped replying to my e-mails and telephone calls. I don’t hold it against them. Very likely they are under lockdown by spokesmen and lawyers.
Naturally, all this piqued my curiosity. With the help of my colleague Sam Adler-Bell, I think I have pieced together most of the story.
It turns out that Purdue has wiped all copies of my video and slides from university servers, on grounds that I displayed classified documents briefly on-screen. A breach report was filed with the university’s Research Information Assurance Officer, also known as the Site Security Officer, under the terms of Defense Department Operating Manual 5220.22-M. I am told that Purdue briefly considered, among other things, whether to destroy the projector I borrowed, lest contaminants remain.
UPDATE: Just after posting this item I received an e-mail from Julie Rosa, who heads strategic communications for Purdue. She confirmed that Purdue wiped my video after consulting the Defense Security Service, but the university now believes it went too far:
In an overreaction while attempting to comply with regulations, the video was ordered to be deleted instead of just blocking the piece of information in question. Just FYI: The conference organizers were not even aware that any of this had happened until well after the video was already gone. I’m told we are attempting to recover the video, but I have not heard yet whether that is going to be possible. When I find out, I will let you know and we will, of course, provide a copy to you.
Government speak
Let’s rewind. Information Assurance? Site Security?
These are familiar terms elsewhere, but new to me in a university context. I learned that Purdue, like a number of its peers, has a “facility security clearance” to perform classified US government research. The manual of regulations runs to 141 pages. (Its terms forbid uncleared trustees to ask about the work underway on their campus, but that’s a subject for another day.) The pertinent provision here, spelled out at length in a manual called Classified Information Spillage, requires “sanitization, physical removal, or destruction” of classified information discovered on unauthorized media.
If I had the spider sense that we journalists like to claim, I might have seen trouble coming. One of the first questions in the Q&A that followed my talk was:
“In the presentation you just gave, you were showing documents that were TS/SCI [top secret, sensitive compartmented information] and things like that. Since documents started to become published, has the NSA issued a declass order for that?”
I took the opportunity to explain the government’s dilemmas when classified information becomes available to anyone with an Internet connection. “These documents, by and large, are still classified," I said. "And in many cases, if you work for the government and you have clearance, you’re not allowed to go look at them… Now, it’s perfectly rational for them to say, we’re not going to declassify everything that gets leaked because otherwise we’re letting someone else decide what’s classified and what’s not. But it gets them wound up in pretty bad knots.”
By way of example, I mentioned that the NSA, CIA, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence “have steadfastly refused to give me a secure channel to communicate with them” about the Snowden leaks. Bound by rules against mingling classified and unclassified communications networks, they will not accept, for example, encrypted e-mails from me that discuss Top Secret material. In service of secrecy rules, they resort to elliptical conversation on open telephone lines.
My remarks did not answer the question precisely enough for one post-doctoral research engineer. He stood, politely, to nail the matter down.
“Were the documents you showed tonight unclassified?” he asked.
“No. They’re classified still,” I replied.
“Thank you,” he said and resumed his seat.
Eugene Spafford, a Purdue professor of computer science who has held high clearances himself, wrote to me afterward. “We have a number of ‘junior security rangers’ on faculty and staff who tend to be ‘by the book.’ Unfortunately, once noted, that is something that cannot be unnoted.”
Sure enough, someone filed a report with the above-mentioned Information Assurance Officer, who reported in turn to Purdue’s representative at the Defense Security Service. By the terms of its Pentagon agreement, Purdue was officially obliged to be shocked to find that spillage is going on at a talk about Snowden and the NSA. Three secret slides, covering perhaps five of my 90 minutes on stage, required that video be wiped in its entirety.
This was, I think, a rather devout reading of the rules. (Taken literally, the rules say Purdue should also have notified the FBI. I do not know whether that happened.) A more experienced legal and security team might have taken a deep breath and applied the official guidance to “realistically consider the potential harm that may result from compromise of spilled information.”
Or perhaps not. Yes, the images I displayed had been viewed already by millions of people online. Even so, federal funding might be at stake for Purdue, and the notoriously vague terms of the Espionage Act hung over the decision. For most lawyers, “abundance of caution” would be the default choice.
Staying mum?
This kind of zeal is commonplace in the military and intelligence services. They have periodically forbidden personnel — and even their families — to visit mainstream sites such as The Washington Post and The New York Times for fear of exposure to documents from Snowden or Wikileaks.
But universities are not secret agencies. They cannot lightly wear the shackles of a National Industrial Security Program, as Purdue agreed to do. The values at their core, in principle and often in practice, are open inquiry and expression.
I do not claim I suffered any great harm when Purdue purged my remarks from its conference proceedings. I do not lack for publishers or public forums. But the next person whose talk is disappeared may have fewer resources.
More importantly, to my mind, Purdue has compromised its own independence and that of its students and faculty. It set an unhappy precedent, even if the people responsible thought they were merely following routine procedures.
Think of it as a classic case of mission creep. Purdue invited the secret-keepers of the Defense Security Service into one cloistered corner of campus (“a small but significant fraction” of research in certain fields, as the university counsel put it). The trustees accepted what may have seemed a limited burden, confined to the precincts of classified research.
Now the security apparatus claims jurisdiction over the campus (“facility”) at large. The university finds itself “sanitizing” a conference that has nothing to do with any government contract. Where does it stop? Suppose a professor wants to teach a network security course, or a student wants to write a foreign policy paper, that draws on the rich public record made available by Snowden and Chelsea Manning—those cases will be hard to distinguish from mine.
If the faculty and trustees are comfortable with this arrangement, I honestly do not know how. Some are not, I discovered.
“There is a fundamental conflict between the role of the university and the application of the [facility clearance] rules,” Spafford told me. “I’m not sure if the university is taking them too far, or if the rules are too constraining and they didn’t understand what they were getting into.”
Before writing this post, I reached out to a vice president and other senior figures I met on campus. I hoped to find that there had been some mistake. I received no reply.
Then I left word for Mitch Daniels, the former Indiana governor who became Purdue’s president two years ago. Daniels had introduced my talk and asked me to speak again for guests at a dinner he held that night. He was a delightful, well-read and open-minded host, but he has not returned my messages either. I sent one last note, detailing my main points here, to Purdue’s assistant vice president for strategic communications. I’ll update with her reply if she sends one.
The irony is that the Dawn or Doom colloquium was Daniels’ own personal project. Two of the organizers told me he is fascinated by the contradictory responses — from celebration to alarm — that tend to accompany big technological advances. He proposed to convene Purdue faculty members and leading national experts to explore the risks and promises of artificial intelligence, robotics, and Big Data surveillance, among other developments.
In his own view, Dawn or Doom is not a hard question. Daniels and I chatted about that theme as we stood in the wings off stage, shortly before my talk.
“The answer always turns out to be, it’s dawn,” he said.
I wonder.
Postscript: Someone is bound to suggest I post the Purdue talk here. I wish I could, but I did not write it out. Nor are the slides self-explanatory. Most of them are just amusing images, intended to make my remarks sound wittier than they probably are. On the other hand: if you have a samizdat copy of the video, please send it my way. I’ll be glad to publish it.
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(Reblog, don't repost please!)
Nel and Yachiru dressing up as the "bad guys"! Beware of powerful supernatural kids on a sugar high!I know I'm a bit early, but I wanna wish you all the best Halloween! Stay safe and collect all the candy! | {
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Carrie Lam unveils a mega financial package on Wednesday to help businesses and workers through the health crisis. Photo: May Tse | {
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Obtuse Verbosity On Demand. Please send e-mail to brainallgone at prodigy dot net. | {
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A source from inside the Ubuntu team has informed a blogger that there will be an important announcement coming from Canonical regarding a possible rebranding of Ubuntu. A lot of enthusiasts are quick to speculate that the changes will be all about the color schemes used by Ubuntu and that it may go from brown to gray. Evidence pointing to an Ubuntu makeover is this Ubuntu Single Sign On page where the logo being used is color gray and not the usual brown. There’s also this statement made by Shuttleworth from a recent interview in which he said:"We'll have some new styling which is going to be the starting point of another five year view. We've been Human for the last five years and now we're going to be light oriented."I remembered reading an article (I forgot the link) about Mark Shuttleworth expressing his desire to equal or beat Mac OS X in terms of user interface and overall polish, which made me think and agree to all the rumors that Ubuntu might try to imitate the Mac OS desktop interface.If indeed Ubuntu turns to gray or light oriented as they call it, how will the users react? If you ask me, I wouldn't mind the color change as long as the Ubuntu look will remain unique and not trying to be like a Mac.What do you think? | {
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Skuespiller Torben Jensen er blandt andet kendt fra tv-serien 'Taxa' og som en ægte filmskurk.
Skuespilleren Torben Jensen er død, 74 år gammel. Det oplyser Have Kommunikation i en pressemeddelelse.
Han er blandt andet kendt for sin rolle som Citybilen-direktøren Herman i tv-serien 'Taxa' og som lægen Løwe i filmen 'Flamberede Hjerter', hvor han spillede over for Kirsten Lehfeldt. Den rolle sikrede ham en Robert i 1987 for bedste mandlige hovedrolle.
Han har også medvirket i filmene 'Guldregn', 'Høfeber' og 'Mifunes sidste sang' foruden en lang række teaterforestillinger.
En ægte filmskurk
'Skurk' er titlen på Jonas Langvad Nilssons portrætbog om Torben Jensen fra 2005, og det var da også i rollerne som filmskurk, han for alvor gjorde sig bemærket.
- Få danske skuespillere har som han formået at vække ubehag hos publikum, når han har vist sit fjæs på tv-skærmen, det hvide lærred eller på en teaterscene, skriver forfatteren i forordet og betegner ham som "en ægte filmskurk".
I bogen 'Danske filmskuespillere' fra 2003 skriver forfatter Morten Piil:
- Med et stikkende blik og en aggressiv stemmeføring har han et sikkert greb på betændte figurer - kyniske, selvsmagende, brutale, men på bunden ofte klynkende og svage mænd. Og i modsætning til sine kolleger - for eksempel en Henning Jensen, der bevæger sig i samme rollefelt - har han indtil for nylig som privatperson skyet offentlighedens søgelys, så publikum sjældent har set andet end rollerne. Hvilket har forøget hans farlighed på lærredet.
Hård opvækst og sceneskræk
Torben Jensen blev født i København i 1944, og siden fulgte en hård opvækst og ophold på børnehjem, inden han blev uddannet fra Odense Teaters elevskole i 1970.
I et interview til DR2 fortalte han i 2000 om sin voldelige far og den sceneskræk, han bukkede under for, mens han var på Det Kongelige Teater i midten af 1990'erne. Men ellers stillede han stort set aldrig op, når pressen spurgte.
- Jeg gav mit første og eneste interview i 1978, og jeg brød mig ikke om det. Når jeg ikke er på scenen, vil jeg gerne være anonym, sagde han i 1998 til Ekstra Bladet, der ønskede at interviewe ham i forbindelse med hans rolle i 'Taxa'.
Torben Jensen efterlader sig en voksen datter. | {
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Troy Anthony LaRaviere was, until this week, the principal of Chicago Magazine’s #1 neighborhood school, Blaine Elementary School. LaRaviere became the principal of Blaine back in 2010, saying he would bring the 6th ranked school to the top of the list and he would use empirical evidence to support the school practices he and his fellow educators applied to their student body.
About two years into his tenure, after dealing quietly with the mountains of bullshit that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) get from up high, he began speaking out about his misgivings with what he felt was mismanagement. When Emanuel announced sweeping budget cuts to education a couple of years ago, Troy LaRaviere publicly criticized Emanuel and others. This led to LaRaviere being chastised publicly, and the beginnings of a campaign to oust LaRaviere began, you know, corporate gangster-style.
Troy LaRaviere has been battling, on principle, to stay principal the past couple of months, but the announcement of his school’s success—in a publication that Emanuel and others laud—LaRaviere was given the opportunity to resign on his terms and in an open letter addressed to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. It’s one of the best pieces of writing on public education and the fundamental problems with education “reformers” in both the Republican and more importantly the Democratic Party. On his school’s accomplishments LaRaviere writes:
Behind this significant accomplishment are a series of basic concepts based on empirical evidence regarding effective school practices and thoughtful consideration of how we might apply those practices at Blaine. One fundamental element of improving the school was ending selective access to advanced curriculum. When I arrived, less than 30% of students had access to it; today more than 90% have access. As is the case with most CPS schools, Blaine has a talented hard working staff. Another critical element of our success was to involve that staff in an effort to create systems, relationships, and patterns of collaborative activity that are proven to improve teacher performance, and therefore improve student achievement. In many ways, that was the easy part. The difficult part was mustering the will and stamina to remain steadfast in our commitment to use evidence-based practice in the face of tremendous pressure–from politicians like you–to adopt baseless “school reform” ideas like “tracking” (school based selective enrollment), “choice,” and the over-evaluation of teachers; ideas that are grounded in ideology and politics as opposed to proven effective educational methods. In a word, the biggest obstacle to Blaine becoming the #1 neighborhood school in Chicago was politics. And while many people contributed to this problem, nobody in our great city is more responsible for that political obstruction than you.
LaRaviere hoped for a while that his, and the example of others, would help get Rahm and other “reformers” to see that there were tangible benefits to listening to actual educators about…education.
Accordingly, in the summer of 2013 I began efforts to ensure that the residents of our city understood the negative consequences of your administration’s backward and reckless management of our school district. I did so for the following reasons: Decisions by you and the board you appointed and completely controlled had damaging consequences for our school system.
Although your board was unelected, and therefore unaccountable to the residents of Chicago, you were indeed elected and could be held accountable.
As a public servant it was my responsibility to ensure the public understood the negative consequences of your school-related decision-making so they could hold you and your board accountable. So for the next three years, I consistently and publicly advocated for credible evidence-based education policies. This, in turn, made me also be a consistent public critic of the ideological and politically driven policies coming out of your office and implemented by your hand-picked board.
He is not alone. The United States is filled with teachers who are being forced to comply with idiotic test-based and private money-interest-driven educational “reforms.” The whole letter is linked above and below, but I will leave you with his conclusion:
In closing, should you ever decide to prioritize student learning over the profits of your campaign donors, feel free to reach out to me and the principals I was elected to represent. We have an abundance of ideas for improving the system for the students we serve. In the meantime, we will continue in our efforts to vigorously advocate for the kind of effective evidence-based education policies and practices that your office does its best to ignore and suppress.
Listen to Principal LaRaviere talking about budget cuts and his opposition to the crony education being pushed by both Democrats and Republicans, last year. Read the entire open letter here. | {
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Apple could address all of these problems by allowing text queries into Siri via the existing Spotlight interface.
Siri's servers aren't always quick or even available, and waiting a minute for Dictation's purple balls to time out and provide no text input can be beyond frustrating. For some power users already engaged in entering text, switching from typing to voice entry can also be sub-optimal.
But what about Voice Free? Having a conversation with your iPhone or (soon) iPad is something straight out of science fiction. But voice isn't always the best or most appropriate way to query data, and sometimes it's not even possible.
Apple greatly expanded Siri in iOS 6 , adding a host of new features including sports, movies, and dining results, far better language support, and even an Eyes Free driving mode for when hands-free usage is paramount.
If Spotlight could access Siri's contextually aware response engine, the same great results could be delivered back, using the same great widget system that already has buttons to touch-confirm or cancel, etc.
Any question you could ask Siri could just as easily be typed. "Weather?" "Directions to Cupertino?" "Send text to bob I'll be late" "Meaning of life?"
Spotlight on Mac does far more than Spotlight on iOS. If there's any fear this couldn't be done on mobile, Just Type on webOS has been doing basic actions since version 2.0 back in March of 2011.
Instead of a static search section that only includes Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia and Twitter, a new search section called "LAUNCH & SEARCH" has been created (see example above). This is now a customizable search list that will allow you to search within any website that participates in the Open Search protocol, any apps that register themselves as "Just Type" searchable, and even the App Catalog. So, instead of launching Foursquare, waiting for a list of venues to load up, typing in your search criteria for a venue and then waiting for that list to populate, you can just type in the venue name in Just Type, hit the Foursquare search link, and it will open up to an already-searched listing. "Quick Actions" are another new feature of Just Type that allow you to send text directly to an app to perform any number of actions, such as creating a new email, SMS or tweet, updating your Facebook status, or even creating a new calendar event. Just type in your text, press the action you want to perform, and the app will open up with your text pre-populated in the necessary sections. As an example, to update your Facebook status, just type in your status to Just Type, tap the Facebook action, the Facebook app will be launched with your status right there, and all you need to do is press "Post" You are also now able to search for data within specific applications, right from just type. Currently, only Email and the Web Browser are available as searchable apps, but this allows you to search for any email that has already been downloaded on your phone (sadly, while sub folders are included here, they are still not automatically synced in webOS 2.0), or search through your web browser's bookmarks or history, all without loading up those respective apps.
Apps like Launch Center are great for quickly initiating actions (rather than apps). Tapping through is different than typing into, however. The former is lightning quick for set actions. The latter is adaptible for the moment. Like voice, tapping and typing all have their place and value.
And haultiple points of entry to consistent content doesn't increase complexity -- it increases accessibility.
iOS 6 is already in beta, so this type of functionality would no doubt have to wait for iOS 6.1 or iOS 7, but for anyone who's used Alfred or Quicksilver, or Just Type or any other kind of keyboard launcher, it would be a fantastically productive front-end alternative. | {
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Nassau-Queens County PM Surf Report:
Small surf continues this afternoon with most spots checking in the knee to thigh high range with lully waist high set at the top breaks. Conditions are still clean with N/NNE winds at 10-14mph. The waves remain small and inconsistent but looking fair at the right spots for the bigger boards with the lower tide.
Short Term Forecast:
Fading E/ESE Paulette swell and new building E windswell continues over the day with 1-2-3' waves. Winds increase from the N to 16-18mph keeping conditions clean. Low tide is at 3:00pm.
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5 min read Cat With Sensitive Eyes Wears Special Sunglasses Wherever She Goes "She also is quite in tune to people who themselves have different needs."
When Bagel’s mom, Karen McGill, adopted her when she was 2 months old, she did not realize at first just how many issues Bagel had. Bagel was born without eyelids and needed three surgeries during her first year of life. Her mom puts eye drops into her eyes twice a day, and has to keep a close watch on the state of her eyes in general. Bagel also has numerous allergies and is unable to regulate her body temperature — and yet, none of these issues slow her down even a little bit.
From the moment she adopted her, McGill could tell Bagel was special. She’s always been the sweetest, most outgoing cat, and desperately wants to accompany her mom everywhere she goes. Bagel’s eyes are very sensitive due to her lack of eyelids, which made leaving the house with her seem impossible at first, until McGill had an idea. Instead of making Bagel stay inside all the time, she got Bagel special sunglasses to wear while she’s outside — which not only help protect her eyes, but also make her the cutest, most fashionable adventure cat in the world.
“People usually laugh when they see her in her sunglasses,” McGill told The Dodo. “They think it’s really cool, but then I explain why she has to wear them and then they tell me that they just thought she was being fashionable.”
Despite her numerous health issues, Bagel doesn’t seem to have any idea that she’s any different, and has yet to meet an adventure that she hasn’t loved. She and her mom used to live on a boat on Venice Beach, which involved lots of walks along the beach and playing in the sand. She also loves riding in baby swings at the park …
… riding the subway in NYC …
… going swimming with her dog friends …
… going on hikes …
… riding in her stroller …
… and, of course, getting to meet lots of different people along the way.
“Bagel loves to meet people of all ages and get kisses as well as snuggles from them,” McGill said. “She also is quite in tune to people who themselves have different needs. I’ve seen it time and time again when she gravitates towards certain people.”
Bagel has grown accustomed to being loved and fussed over while out on her many different adventures. She knows she’s fabulous, and has therefore developed some strong opinions, which she definitely isn’t afraid to share. “Bagel is truly the ultimate diva,” McGill said. “She must have her own seat wherever we are, and especially when riding on the NYC subway. If she knows that her stroller is around, there’s no way that she’ll walk on her leash.”
Bagel has never once let her differences slow her down at all, and is teaching the world that just because you’re a little different, doesn’t mean you’re not capable of doing anything you want to. | {
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Further Reading San Jose teen cited for child porn after posting classmates’ nudes on Instagram
Police in Mountain View, California, told Ars on Tuesday that they are set to formally present the results of their months-long investigation of an online nude photo exchange of high school girls. The presentation will go to county prosecutors before the end of the year.
“No arrests or charges filed yet in this case,” Katie Nelson, a spokeswoman for the Mountain View Police Department, told Ars by e-mail. “We are presenting the case to the [district attorney] by year's end, and they will ultimately decide what direction this goes.”
As has happened in similar cases in other parts of the country for years now, ringleaders could be prosecuted with child pornography, among other felony charges.
Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle broke the story of the investigation. The newspaper reported that the investigation involves a “handful of individuals,” both male and female minors, who are believed to be at the “center of the investigation.” There were photos of at least two girls on a private Dropbox account that was circulated among some students at that school and others as well. The Dropbox account was immediately frozen by police, and no one has since been able to view, access, share, download, or upload anything.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Tuesday that the existence of the photos was a “relatively open secret among students” for months. It wasn’t until Monday that the Mountain View Los Altos school district formally acknowledged the investigation to families.
In a joint letter by the district and the police, the agencies wrote:
MVLA first learned of this incident in August and immediately referred the matter to the Mountain View Police Department. The police department, which has been meticulously investigating this case over the past few months, immediately disabled the Dropbox account when they began their investigation to prevent any further access. Additionally, Mountain View detectives instructed MVLA administrators to maintain confidentiality in order to ensure that no evidence was compromised.
More than a year ago, a high school in nearby San Jose was hit with a similar scandal when a student was found to have been distributing nude photos of students via Instagram.
As Ars reported previously, a 2014 Drexel University survey found that while the majority of teens sext with each other, an even higher percentage was unaware that engaging in such behavior could be prosecuted as child pornography.
The National Conference of State Legislatures began tracking sexting legislation in 2009 and reported that at least 20 states and Guam have enacted bills to address youth sexting. | {
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Ball Aerospace Selected by NASA to Study Solar Electric Propulsion Spacecraft
by Staff Writers
Boulder CO (SPX) Dec 02, 2011
The extremely high efficiency of solar electric power-based propulsion can deliver the large amounts of logistics support equipment required for deep space human exploration within an executable launch infrastructure.
Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. is one of five companies that will develop mission concepts for demonstrating solar electric propulsion in space, important for NASA's future deep space human exploration missions.
The five companies were each awarded study contracts up to $600K.
Ball will work with NASA to define a mission concept that will demonstrate the solar electric propulsion technologies, capabilities, and infrastructure required for sustainable, affordable human presence in space.
"Moving payloads reliably and cost effectively from low Earth orbit to high-energy orbits is critical for deep space human and robotic exploration and relies on the systems engineering expertise Ball is known," said Cary Ludtke, vice president of Ball's Civil and Operational Space business unit.
"In addition to solar electric propulsion and power-related advanced technologies, Ball has broad capabilities on deep space missions, as well as spaceflight systems engineering and integration, including modular design implementation."
The extremely high efficiency of solar electric power-based propulsion can deliver the large amounts of logistics support equipment required for deep space human exploration within an executable launch infrastructure.
The mission concept studies will identify technology gaps and look at innovative technical solutions for transportation using solar electric propulsion systems.
NASA will use the studies to plan and implement a future flight demonstration mission that will test and validate key capabilities and technologies. | {
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When Anthony Cumia got fired by SiriusXM, his longtime partners Greg "Opie" Hughes and comedian Jim Norton could not leave with him because they were under contract to the satellite radio provider and faced massive financial penalties if they just walked away.
Now, however, the end of that contract is near and there has been nothing from either the hosts or SiriusXM to suggest what will happen.
It's possible the end of the deal simply means that Opie with Jim Norton goes off the air, but it's also possible the pair continues without a contract or even that a new deal can be reached.
Opie and Jim's contracts expire October 1, so, if the end of the deal means the end of the show, this could be their last week on the air.
In recent weeks Opie has been quiet about his contract status but he did mention previously that no negotiations were taking place and that they would have already started if the company intended to keep the show.
That's generally true, but there have been some signs that SiriusXM is interested in keeping thing as they are.
Though the company was obligated to pay Norton and Opie, it did not have to keep the show on the air.
SiriusXM has also made some investment, albeit minor, in the channel where Opie and Jim air, adding some trial programming featuring comedians well-known to the Opie and Anthony audience.
Though Opie would most likely prefer to reunite with Cumia, he may not have the option to do that as his former partner has found success with his own subscription-based show, which he has said he wants to do on his own.
Cumia, whose new program airs in the afternoon, has left open the idea he would put O&A back together if a morning opportunity arose.
For now, with no obvious suitors for Opie and Jim, it might make sense for them and SiriusXM to simply stay together.
That makes sense, but it's also possible this is the last week for the pair and that their next home, with or without Cumia, has yet to be decided. | {
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Lithium batteries have become a very popular technology, powering everything from cell phones to cars. But that doesn't mean the technology is without its problems; lithium batteries have been implicated in some critical technological snafus, from exploding laptops to grounded airplanes. Most of these problems can be traced back to the electrolyte, a liquid that helps ions carry charges within the battery. Liquid electrolytes can leak, burn, and distort the internal structure of the battery, swelling it in ways that can lead to a catastrophic failure.
The solution, of course, would be to get rid of the liquids. But ions don't tend to move as easily through solids, which creates another set of problems. Now, researchers have formulated a solid in which lithium ions can move about five times faster than any previously described substance. Better yet, the solid—a close chemical relative of styrofoam—helps provide structural stability to the battery. Don't expect to see a styrofoam battery in your next cellphone though, as the material needs to be heated to 60°C in order to work.
The problem with liquid electrolytes has to do with the fact that, during recharging, lithium ions end up forming deposits of metal inside the battery. These create risks of short circuits (the problem that grounded Boeing's Dreamliner 787) and can damage the battery's structure, causing leaks and a fire risk. Solid electrodes get around this because the lithium ions will only come out of the electrolyte at specific locations within the solid, and can't form the large metal deposits that cause all of the problems.
However, as noted above, solids don't allow lithium to move through them very easily. This creates a bit of a practical problem, in that the batteries typically need to be heated to around 80°C before charges start moving at all, but long-term performance problems are even worse. Because the ions move so slowly, a gradient of lithium gets built up across the battery during discharging, with ions piling up near the negative electrode. This slows the rate at which they can charge and discharge.
The key thing about the new material is that it avoids having a single, charged site where the lithium ions would be stored, since this strong attraction is what slows the ions down. Instead, each of the polystyrene groups has an added chemical that includes two sulfur atoms bridged by a nitrogen. Although the nitrogen technically carries a negative charge, it's shared with the two sulfurs, making it far more diffuse. As a result, it doesn't hang on to the lithium as tightly, meaning the lithium can move through the material much faster.
Almost everything about the material is an improvement over existing solid electrolytes: rather than needing temperatures of 80°C to operate, it works well at 60°C; the ions move about five times faster than they do in existing electrolytes; and the polystyrene-based electrolyte has a tensile strength ten times that of the existing material.
The researchers built a number of test batteries with this, and showed that the material was stable for dozens of charge/discharge cycles, and operated well over a wide variety of temperatures (though all of them a bit elevated). There were a few performance numbers but, given the unusual electrodes and battery material in this case, it's hard to make a comparison between them and the existing liquid electrolyte batteries.
In the end, the comparisons might not be especially relevant. Because these batteries require elevated temperatures just to operate, they're not going to find the same uses as our current gadget batteries. But there are a number of use cases—like in aircraft, for just one example—where keeping batteries at an elevated operating temperature wouldn't be an issue. And that also happens to be a use case where the things this battery does bring to the table, like mechanical strength and limited risk of fires or explosions, may make a somewhat lower performance worth putting up with.
Nature Materials, 2013. DOI: 10.1038/NMAT3602 (About DOIs). | {
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Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke Beto O'RourkeJimmy Carter says his son smoked pot with Willie Nelson on White House roof O'Rourke endorses Kennedy for Senate: 'A champion for the values we're most proud of' 2020 Democrats do convention Zoom call MORE said in an interview that aired Sunday that fellow Democrats are enabling President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE's willingness to take foreign information on campaign opponents by not impeaching him.
"If there are no consequences, if there is no accountability, if there is no justice, then we will have set the precedent that it is OK to accept help from a foreign government, it is OK to obstruct the investigation into the interference in our election," O'Rourke said while appearing on CNN's "State of the Union."
The former Democratic congressman also doubled down on his call for impeachment, saying that it is necessary to send a signal about foreign interference in U.S. elections.
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"Impeachment is incredibly important to get to the facts, to discover the truth, to make sure that there is accountability for the undermining of our democracy, but also to send the signal that this can never happen again, to send the signal to Russia, to send the signal to Donald Trump, to send the signal to this country that we will save this Democracy," he said.
He added that Democrats should look beyond the next election when making this decision.
"It is now time for the House of Representatives to act, to look beyond the polls and their prospects in the next election, and look to the future of this country and the generations that follow who are counting on us to do the right thing," he said.
His comments follow remarks by President Trump in an interview in which he suggested that he might accept damaging information on a political opponent from a foreign government.
“I think you might want to listen. There’s nothing wrong with listening,” Trump told ABC News. “It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it. If I thought there was something wrong, I’d go maybe to the FBI.”
In the interview, ABC News's George Stephanopoulos George Robert StephanopoulosColbert implores Pelosi to update 'weaponry' in SCOTUS fight: 'Trump has a literal heat ray' Murkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Cruz says Senate Republicans likely have votes to confirm Trump Supreme Court nominee MORE noted that Trump's FBI director, Christopher Wray, said campaigns should report such contact from foreign entities to the bureau.
"The FBI director is wrong," Trump responded.
O'Rourke is among two dozen people vying for the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination. | {
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Monday slammed the FBI's investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign as a “criminal enterprise” that got off the rails.
Graham delivered his remarks during a news conference in which he reacted to the long-awaited review concerning the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
“Let’s assume for a moment it started out okay. It sure as he-- didn’t end okay,” Graham said referring to investigators' efforts to seek a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the early months of the Russia investigation.
“I believe there will be no debate among reasonably minded people, particularly lawyers, about how the system got off the rails, but in my view became a criminal enterprise to defraud the FISA court, to deny American citizen Carter Page his constitutional rights, and to continue an operation against President Trump as president of the United States,” he said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., giving his take on the FISA report during an earlier news conference, said the report put to rest any notion that the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign was politically motivated.
“This report conclusively debunks the baseless conspiracy that the investigation into Mr. Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia originated with political bias.”
Schumer again reiterated that the FBI investigation was “valid and without political bias.”
Anticipating that his Republican colleagues will do their “level best to reject the report’s conclusions,” Schumer pointed out that FBI Director Christopher Wray – a Trump appointee – has “already embraced the central findings.”
US ATTORNEY DURHAM OBJECTS TO IG FINDINGS ON RUSSIA PROBE ORIGINS IN STUNNING STATEMENT
He quoted Wray as saying he did not believe the FBI unfairly targeted the Trump campaign.
Schumer also said it was “ironic” that officials including Attorney General William Barr and Graham, who have praised Horowitz in the past, later questioned the report.
“Because the IG issued a report whose conclusions he doesn’t like, Senator Graham ought not to question what he upheld last week,” Schumer said.
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The report listed multiple errors by the FBI in its efforts to obtain a FISA warrant. The IG probe identified at least 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the Page applications and said a new audit into the FISA process would take place.
Horowitz and his investigators were at times critical of the bureau’s handling of the cast, including for failing to share information that would have undercut claims in those warrants.
Fox News' Ronn Blitzer and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. | {
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Last month, protests broke out in Basra after the Iranian government cut one-third of the total electricity used by Iraq’s second-largest city. Demonstrations against power shortages and other longstanding grievances such as unemployment quickly spread throughout Iraq’s Shia-majority south, leading Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to dismiss his minister of electricity. Iran, a major provider of Iraq’s electricity in the wake of the war against the Islamic State group (ISIL), variously blamed its neighbor’s nonpayment of electricity bills, spiraling electricity demand and demonstrations at home, and U.S. sanctions for the shortfall. Some Iraqi politicians have countered that Iran deliberately cut electricity to weaken Abadi, a U.S. ally, and strengthen its hand in forming a new, more Iran-friendly government. One Iraqi official decried Tehran’s decision as “political blackmail.”
With Iran unable or unwilling to restore most of the power, Iraq has engaged Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the hope that one or both might help alleviate the crisis. A flurry of proposals and denials has followed on all sides, with some suggesting that Iran is deliberately pressuring Iraq to reject Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) assistance. Certainly, the Iraqi government has appeared to be ultra-sensitive to Iran’s concerns on the matter. When Bloomberg reported on July 29 that Iraq had arranged for Saudi Arabia to supply it with electricity at one-quarter of the price charged by Iran, an Iraqi government spokesperson rushed to deny the deal on Iranian state television.
Economic domination is one of Iran’s key levers of influence in Iraq and is underpinned, in part, by leverage over its neighbor’s power supplies. The Islamic Republic understands that its influence over Iraq’s power sector is a major geopolitical coup and that any changes would have implications for its control over Baghdad as well as regional power dynamics. In the short term, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait may only be able to offer Iraq Band-Aid fixes such as fuel or portable generators. However, in the medium to long term, the two countries together have the resources to provide Iraq with the electricity it requires, diminishing Iranian control over Iraq’s economy, depriving Iran of hard currency, and bolstering political stability through economic development. Success in Iraq will give Saudi Arabia and Kuwait a new way of using economic power to bring about favorable geopolitical outcomes. For these countries, Iran’s military strength in Iraq is unassailable. Its economic control, however, can be challenged.
Iran’s Economic Influence
Iranian influence in Iraq relies mainly on armed proxies and economic domination. Its success cultivating highly capable and loyal sectarian militias is unparalleled. But Tehran’s stranglehold on Baghdad’s economy is equally impressive. Each year, Iran sends between 18 and 20 percent of its non-oil exports, valued at between $5 and $6 billion, to its western neighbor. As successive sanctions regimes have squeezed Iran, Iraq has become a crutch by which it keeps its economy afloat. Iranian goods and services have monopolized key sectors, crushing Iraqi agriculture and industry. Iran has also traditionally used its freefalling rial to purchase U.S. dollars in Iraq, although recent U.S. sanctions will complicate those efforts.
Iran’s control over Iraq’s power sector is especially strong. Fifteen years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq generates just over two-thirds of the electricity it needs. While war, fuel shortages, ISIL, and corruption are responsible for most of this shortfall, Iran has exploited the gap in services. TAVANIR, Iran’s state-led utility, which is believed to be under the sway of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, earns $100 million per month supplying electricity to between one and two million Iraqi households. Tehran also takes Iraqi oil as payment for natural gas powering an additional three million Iraqi households. In all, according to my estimates based on publicly reported figures and basic household electricity usage, the Islamic Republic directly or indirectly controls one-quarter of Iraq’s electricity supply.
An Alternate Source of Power
Enter Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In January, a delegation from Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water met with Iraqi officials to discuss linking the Iraqi and GCC electric grids. Kuwait’s proximity to Iraq and its role as a neutral mediator for the Persian Gulf region make it especially well-suited to be the point of interconnection. On its own, Kuwait probably cannot produce the quantity of electricity needed. But Saudi Arabia can.
Riyadh is already investing heavily in power generation, particularly renewables, to conserve more oil for export. But the scope and scale of these projects will eventually generate surplus electricity well beyond what the kingdom can use. In March, Saudi Arabia and SoftBank announced their intention to build the world’s largest solar installation, producing a staggering 200 gigawatts — nearly triple the kingdom’s total present electrical output. Even if Saudi Arabia falls far short of this target, other renewable projects are advancing quickly. In 2018 alone, the kingdom will launch enough solar and wind projects to power three million homes.
The idea of turning Saudi Arabia into an electricity exporter is not new. Three years ago, then-Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told UNESCO that the kingdom aimed to develop its solar energy industry to the point where “instead of exporting fossil fuels, [Saudi Arabia] will be exporting gigawatts of electric power.” Domestically, electricity exports can advance Saudi Arabia’s effort to diversify its economy, provide jobs for Saudi citizens, and help to fund new industries. Identifying viable foreign markets for this electricity has, however, proven complicated. With more generation capacity coming online, intra-GCC electricity trading is already largely limited to emergency outages. Plans for a Saudi–Egypt interconnection, first raised in 2010, have been repeatedly put on hold due to political and financial considerations. Europe is a possible new market — one the Saudis are currently exploring — but Europe’s immediate focus is on interconnecting with its Mediterranean neighbors.
Iraq, on the other hand, requires enormous amounts of electricity, shares a border with the kingdom, and occupies one of the most strategically important locations in the Middle East. It has been a geopolitical buffer for Saudi Arabia against Iran and can serve as a stepping stone to get GCC electricity to markets in Turkey and Europe. The kingdom is aware of the opportunity presented by its northern neighbor. In January, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation, which is owned by ten Arab oil-exporting states including Saudi Arabia, wrote that an interconnection between the GCC and Iraq “offers huge potential.”
But Riyadh does not need to wait for new power generation projects to be completed to help Iraq. The kingdom already produces 45 percent more power than it can use in winter (although it has no spare capacity during the summer months). The Saudi and Kuwaiti grids, which are already connected to one another, could be retrofitted using “HTLS” (high-temperature low-sag) conductors to carry two to three times as much electricity. The Saudi–Kuwaiti interconnection could then be extended from Kuwait into Basra.
According to one energy consultant with close ties to Arab Gulf utilities, for the transnational link to function, Saudi Arabia would have to sell electricity to Kuwait, which would then sell it on to Iraq. The three countries would need to agree on rules and fee structures, and may need their electric utilities to set up special-purpose vehicles to sell the electricity across borders. The Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority, which governs power sharing among GCC member states, could help with this. The consultant, who wished to remain anonymous due to their involvement in government projects in the GCC region, estimated that the interconnection could be completed in less than five years for several hundred million U.S. dollars.
There are, however, real obstacles to implementation. A resurgent ISIL, which destroyed eight power plants and inflicted $7 billion in damages to Iraq’s power infrastructure during its three-year occupation of the country, continues to target Iraq’s national grid. Given Iranian opposition to GCC assistance, there is also a possibility that Iran-allied militias could sabotage the power lines — although there is no clear evidence that they have attacked power infrastructure thus far. Iraq also has a serious problem with electricity theft; in 2015, the Ministry of Electricity collected payments for just 12 percent of the electricity it produced.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait could alleviate the threat of sabotage by asking Iraq to hire private security to guard new power infrastructure. As a failsafe, both countries will be able to cut the power if the infrastructure is seized by ISIL or Iran-allied militias. Electricity theft, which targets local low-voltage networks, is a thornier problem. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait could help mitigate, although certainly not eliminate, this problem by providing Iraq with electricity meters and perhaps reconfiguring the ministry’s utility payments system along the lines of the Saudi Electricity Company’s highly successful model.
An Iraq–GCC interlink will give Saudi Arabia the Iraqi foothold it has long sought. In so doing, it can serve as one possible geoeconomic alternative to traditional Saudi checkbook diplomacy — the exchange of economic aid and investment for political concessions — which has yielded diminishing returns for the kingdom. For example, while billions of dollars in oil and cash may have helped Saudi Arabia reacquire the islands of Tiran and Sanafir from Egypt, it did nothing to prevent Cairo from opposing Riyadh at the United Nations or sending just 800 troops to back the kingdom’s war in Yemen. Similarly, keeping Lebanon’s economy solvent has not diminished Hizballah nor has bankrolling friendly politicians in Iraq done much to advance GCC interests.
Utility exports like electricity are more cost-effective, less prone to graft, and, because the electric grid traverses an entire country, affect much larger populations than the types of foreign aid and direct investment Saudi Arabia typically employs. Moreover, because electric grids are dispersed, they are more difficult to seize than cash or oil and harder to destroy than agricultural and industrial investments. Most importantly, they distribute benefits across all social strata rather than just a small subsection of elites, making them more likely to spark generalized economic development. This is important because the radical and sectarian transnational ideologies Iran and ISIL employ thrive on economic marginalization. As the director of the United States Institute of Peace’s Middle East project recently warned, “[The Basra] protests demonstrate Iraq’s fragility and an accumulation of public grievances that could lead to the rise of new extremist violence if not addressed.” Insofar as they encourage widespread economic development, electricity exports can weaken the appeal of both Iran’s Islamic Revolution and ISIL’s revived caliphate.
Conclusion
While scholars and policy planners have written about the use of energy as a geopolitical tool, most of their analyses have focused on the ability of autocratic states to cut off oil and natural gas exports as a means of achieving policy objectives. Electricity exports are a way for Saudi Arabia to use its economic clout to achieve desirable political outcomes without relying on proxies or checkbook diplomacy. Saudi electricity exports to Iraq can weaken the Islamic Republic, whose economy is already vulnerable, by denying it income and influence in one of the Middle East’s most strategically important states. By facilitating generalized economic development, these exports can also undermine the appeal of radical and sectarian ideologies, which rely on economic uncertainty.
If this project is successful, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq could eventually form the nucleus of a Middle East common market for tradeable utilities like power and water, revitalizing moribund efforts to achieve regional economic integration along lines discussed by scholars like Michael Hudson, Luay al-Khatteeb, and others. Furthermore, a Saudi–Iraqi accord will signal to the United States and Europe that the kingdom is firmly invested in Iraq’s integrity. This may help convince the international community to increase its own commitments to Iraq’s stabilization and development. Electricity, however simple it may seem, can provide the beginnings of an economic foundation upon which Iraqis can start to rebuild their livelihoods, their national identities, and ultimately their country.
Evan Langenhahn is the head of research at the Arabia Foundation. Sarah Lord, a research analyst at the Arabia Foundation, contributed to this article.
Image: Wikimedia Commons | {
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As University of Minnesota students return to the Twin Cities campus, they can expect an education on the school's new "affirmative sexual consent" policy. It's based on the idea that truly consensual relations require active signals from the participants, not just the absence of objections.
Classes start next week. As students move into their dorms, apartments and houses on and around the U of M's Twin Cities campus, the university is finding ways to tell them about the new policy.
Trish Palermo, community advisor and committee director of Campus Affairs and Student life, says she talked about the policy to residents in the freshman dorm Territorial Hall on Wednesday.
"I explained that it redefines consent to 'yes means yes,'" Palermo said. "I said this is putting the pressure on both individuals to make sure that the other person wants to engage in whatever sexual activity is about to happen."
Last month, the university adopted the affirmative consent policy, which also makes clear that people who are incapacitated by drugs or alcohol are incapable of giving consent. Student government leaders began pushing for the change last year, saying the former policy, which called for "mutually understood" consent, was too vague.
Similar affirmative consent policies have been adopted at schools across the country, including private colleges in Minnesota like Carleton and Macalester.
"Got Consent?" underwear are being given away by The Aurora Center for Advocacy & Education to students who respond correctly to Twitter and Facebook quizzes about the University of Minnesota's new affirmative consent policy. Courtesy of The Aurora Center for Advocacy & Education
U of M fraternities, sororities, coaches, and athletes are meeting with campus organizations on the new policy, and messages are being sent out to the entire student body over email and social media.
Gavin Grivna with the U's Aurora Center for Advocacy and Education says the center has sent out surveys to the student body about affirmative consent and has been posting quizzes on Facebook and Twitter, offering prizes to students with the right answers, including buttons, T-shirts, and underwear with the words "Got Consent?" printed across them.
"When they come into the office they tell us the answer," he said. "So they say that's true, or that's false, and then 'OK great, would you like a pair of our 'Got Consent?' underwear?'"
Junior Jon Solberg says volunteers from the Aurora Center gave a presentation to his fraternity this week. He likes the policy, though he worries about due process for people accused of violating it.
"I feel like this gives people a little bit of reassurance to know that they can say 'no' whenever, which I agree is a good thing," he said. "I'm a little worried about how if it's mutual consent what will happen if someone regrets it the next day, even if they are given consent."
Kimberly Hewitt, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, which oversees university investigations into sexual assault complaints, says the new policy doesn't change much for investigators, though it might make them ask about consent differently.
"We won't conclude there was consent if someone says there was silence. And I think that might've been the case before," she said. "We would look for other indicators of consent if someone said, 'well, this person said nothing so I thought it was ok.'"
She says affirmative consent does help reframe the issue for students.
"The specificity is probably most significantly helpful as an educational tool for students," she said.
Senior Taylor Day says it's a good move on the part of the university.
"There are so many ways that consent can be blurred," she said. "It's really important to have a definition of consent, and if 'yes' is that definition I think it's definitely moving in the right direction." | {
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In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer criticized opponents of the president’s potential executive action for perpetuating “uninformed speculation.” According to Pfeiffer, the president has not yet received from advisers information about what immigration actions are available to him under the law.
“Let’s wait and see what those are before we judgments,” said Pfeiffer.
Host George Stephanopoulos asked, “This could affect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants. Doesn’t a reversal like that fuel the arguments of those saying the president is overstepping his authority?”
Pfeiffer pointed to the current humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied minors flooding across the border as the justification for the President Barack Obama to act on the stalled immigration legislation.
“What the president referred to, whatever he does in this space will not be a substitute for comprehensive immigration reform.” he said. “We need to deal with a specific crisis on the border. The president has no choice but to act.”
He went on to add the executive action would come at “the end of the summer.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN | {
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected President Barack Obama’s invitation to meet him in Bagram airfield.
Adela Raz, deputy spokesperson to President Hamid Karzai said Obama invited President Karzai to meet him in Bagram airfield; however President Karzai offered to meet Obama in Kabul.
The White House officials also confirmed that an invitation was sent to President Hamid Karzai to meet President Barack Obama.
In the meantime, ARG Presidential Palace following a statement said an invitation was sent from the US embassy in Kabul for President Hamid Karzai to visit Bagram airfield and meet with President Obama.
Karzai quoted in the statement said he would be pleased to welcome President Barack Obama in Presidential Palace in Kabul. However, he said he has no intention to visit Bagram airfield to meet President Obama.
President Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday evening and landed in US forces main military base, Bagram airfield.
Obama has made the surprise Memorial Day weekend visit to to thank forces who are preparing to withdraw after nearly 13 years of war. | {
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How well do you know downtown St. Paul? What’s the tallest building? Oldest restaurant? Priciest condo? See the list below to find out.
MOST EXPENSIVE CONDO, BASED ON MARKET VALUE
2015 estimated market value: $1.77 million
The two-story penthouse perched on top of the Lowry building was on the market last year for $2.25 million. The 5,100-square-foot residence is almost certainly bigger than your house, garage and tree house combined. Owner and developer James Halverson, chief financial officer of Bloomington-based Halverson & Blaiser Group, bought the condo for about $300,000 in 2008, when it was just “raw space and a lot of pipes,” and has since sunk some $1.68 million into it. It now has four fireplaces, two terraces, 12-foot ceilings, panoramic views of the downtown skyline and, of course, a “very impressive closet,” Halverson said. The unit was recently re-listed for the same price.
Check out the real estate listing for more photos
MOST EXPENSIVE CONDO, BASED ON SALES PRICE
Great Northern Lofts, 300 Wall St., Unit 603
Sales price: $990,000 ($1.2 million in 2015 dollars)
This condo was purchased in 2005 for about $990,000 at the height of the real estate boom. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $1.2 million today. It had a 2015 estimated market value of about $648,000.
The 2,800-square-foot unit offers views of downtown and comes with a built-in theater and rooftop patio, according to the owner, who asked to keep his name out of print.
TALLEST BUILDING and MOST EXPENSIVE BUILDING, BASED ON SALES PRICE
Standing at 471 feet, the 37-floor building towers over downtown. It was built in 1987, just one year after Jackson Tower, downtown’s second-tallest building, went up. The building is home to Wells Fargo Bank, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, a food court, and other retail and office spaces.
Texas-based real estate investment firm Unilev Capital purchased the skyscraper at the height of the real estate bubble in 2006 for about $105 million. Adjusted for today’s dollars, that would be about $123 million.
OLDEST BUILDING and OLDEST RESTAURANT/BAR
The Original Coney Island Tavern, 444 St. Peter St.
Constructed in 1858, it was reportedly built by a stonemason who had a storefront on the main floor and a residence for his family above. The property would later become famous for slinging Coney dogs out of the restaurant founded by Nick and Frances Arvanitis in 1923. The institution hummed along until 1994, when Frances Arvanitis fell ill. It has reopened sporadically for special downtown events — such as the Republican National Convention in 2008, the Red Bull Crashed Ice competition and the Winter Carnival — and regularly hosts private parties. The founders’ daughter, Mary Arvanitis, has preserved its historic charm since assuming ownership. It still boasts its 1930s bar and jukebox, chock-full of old hits such as “Ol’ Man River” by Frank Sinatra, “San Antonio Rose” by Patsy Cline and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by the Andrews Sisters.
BIGGEST PRIVATE EMPLOYER
The insurance company employs 2,600 people. Downtown’s second-biggest employer, Travelers insurance company, has about 2,000 employees. (That’s the company with the giant red umbrella atop its building.)
MOST EXPENSIVE BUILDING, BASED ON ESTIMATED MARKET VALUE
The Science Museum’s 2015 estimated market value is about $124 million. The current site, on the banks of the Mississippi River downtown, is 370,000 square feet and includes five permanent galleries, 10 acres of outdoor exhibits and the Imax Omnitheater. Incorporated in 1907 as the St. Paul Institute of Science and Letters, the museum started out in the St. Paul Auditorium and then moved to the Merriam Mansion on Capitol Hill and later 30 E. 10th St., where it remained until moving to its present location in 1999.
NEWEST RESTAURANT
Lowertown’s newest restaurant opened March 21 in the former Bin Wine Bar space and offers “everything from snout to tail pig,” said chef Justin Sutherland. What does that mean? Crispy pig tails, whole roasted pork jowl, braised pork shoulder, pork chops, pork sandwiches, you name it. The contemporary Southern-themed menu is definitely pork-centric but also features shrimp and grits, a modern take on chicken and waffles, and other entrees.
NEWEST BUILDING
The city finished building the new home for the St. Paul Saints in early 2015. The 7,201-seat ballpark in Lowertown cost about $63 million, with the majority — about $51 million — financed with public money.
Some 8,600 fans flocked to the Saints’ home opener May 21, which included appearances by a Mardi Gras-style parade, a new pig mascot and even actor Bill Murray, a part-owner of the team.
The venue also hosts concerts, weddings and other public events.
BIGGEST PROPERTY
A stop for railcars, buses and light-rail trains, the grand building and its accompanying bus bay sit on nearly 10 acres of land. After a fire destroyed an early train depot, construction of a replacement began in 1917 and wasn’t completed until 1926. Some 85 years later, the public poured $243 million into renovating the historic space, and the landmark reopened in 2012. | {
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In the 9 years of running Baeldung, we've never been through anything like this pandemic
And, if making my courses more affordable for a while is going to help you stay in business, land a new job, make rent or be able to provide for your family - then it's well worth doing.
Effective immediately, all Baeldung courses are 33% off their normal prices!
You'll find all three courses in the menu, above.
In the 9 years of running Baeldung, we've never been through anything like this pandemic
And, if making my courses more affordable for a while is going to help you stay in business, land a new job, make rent or be able to provide for your family - then it's well worth doing.
Effective immediately, all Baeldung courses are 33% off their normal prices!
You'll find all three courses in the menu, above.
At the very beginning of last year, I decided to track my reading habits and share the best stuff here, on Baeldung. Haven't missed a review since.
Here we go…
1. Spring and Java
A quick, journalistic look at Java 8 Streams performance – something we're starting to be aware of in the community.
This writeup is going to be referenced for a long time, as this kind of low level information is really missing from the Spring ecosystem.
I had to do something similar several times in practice – adding a custom method into a Spring Data repo – so this guide is a welcome reference.
Short and to the point – upgrading to Spring 4 is a solid productivity boost across the board.
A must read if you're working with Hibernate and aren't quite sure how your logging should be set up.
Just because we can do some low level stuff in Java doesn't mean we should. Mockito made some choices about all of that, and about what you can and cannot do with the tool.
This is a quick dive into the way mocks can be injected at runtime.
A very interesting and pragmatic look at the Java 8 functional story, now that it's no longer new and shiny.
Also worth reading:
Webinars and presentations:
Time to upgrade:
2. Technical and Musings
I listened to the “Integration Tests Are a Scam” and it really opened up way of thinking about the way I did testing back then.
Later on I continued to learned from J.B. live, so I'm excited to see here a thought out analysis on the topic. Good stuff.
Also worth reading:
3. Comics
And my favorite Dilberts of the week:
4. Pick of the Week | {
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“The accused are roaming free... and the case drags on,” says a victim who was beaten up by so-called cow vigilantes for skinning a dead cattle last year.
A Dalit family, which was beaten up allegedly by ‘cow vigilantes’ in Una tehsil in Gujarat, have decided to embrace Buddhism.
In July last year, seven Dalits of Mota Samadhiyala village were paraded and flogged for skinning a dead cow, an incident that caused nation-wide outrage after its video went viral.
Later, four of these Dalit youths were taken to Una town, where they were tied up with a vehicle and thrashed allegedly by the cow vigilantes.
A member of the Dalit family has alleged that the State government did not fulfil its promise to give jobs and a piece of land to the victims.
“We have decided to convert to Buddhism as we have faced a lot of discrimination due to our traditional profession for skinning dead animals,” Vashram Sarvaiya said, the eldest of three brothers who were beaten on July 11, 2016.
“We are yet to finalise the date, but we have asked the community members to come together and convert to Buddhism in large numbers,” he told PTI.
Sarvaiya alleged that the government did not constitute a special court to try the case of assault — as was promised by the then Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. The police had arrested 20 people in the matter.
“The accused are roaming free after they were released on bail, and the case drags on. We haven’t been given anything as promised by the State government.
“All we have got was ₹3 lakh that is given to Dalit victims in atrocity cases, but most of the money was spent on litigation and medicines as our father Ashok Sarvaiya continues to suffer due to the thrashing and needs to be taken to a Ahmedabad hospital for treatment,” he said.
With most of the accused out on bail, the family members are scared of stepping out of their home, Sarvaiya said. | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Have animated cell phone conversation while shitting in public bathroom | {
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We’ve seen some examples of bad driving in our time, but this Uber driver is really taking the biscuit.
How on earth he managed to get stuck to there we will never know, but luckily for us someone was on hand to take photos of their frankly precarious situation.
People were stunned to see the white taxi, complete with Uber branding emblazoned on its side, dangling over the set of stairs in Bath city centre, Somerset.
People were stunned to see the white taxi, complete with Uber branding emblazoned on its side, dangling over the set of stairs in Bath city centre, Somerset (Picture: Phil Thompson / SWNS.com)
Witnesses guessed the driver had been following the sat nav and assumed the route must have taken him that way.
But regardless of how he got there, locals were shocked to see the car hanging over the top step, unable to reverse or go forwards.
Witnesses guessed the driver had been following the sat nav and assumed the route must have taken him that way (Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe / Bloomberg)
Cabbie Paul Roles, 54, witnessed the gaffe in Bath, Somerset, and said it took over an hour to free the stricken car.
He said: ‘It just shows you how much these Uber drivers rely on sat nav. It clearly told the driver to make a turn and it’s taken him right down these steps.
Expand
‘Taxi drivers need to have local knowledge so things like this do not happen. You can’t just rely on sat nav.’ | {
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At about 8pm last Thursday, Nathaniel Chalobah, then still of Chelsea, posted on Instagram a picture of the former Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace defender Fitz Hall. The subject of several weeks of transfer rumour linking him with Swansea, Southampton and Watford, perhaps this, finally, was a clue to Chalobah’s next move. Either that, or he just likes Fitz Hall. No words accompanied the picture, though for some reason there were three alarm clocks superimposed upon it.
Chelsea’s erratic youth policy and why they should give the kids a chance | Jacob Steinberg Read more
Within half an hour a group of Watford fans on an internet forum had proved, using the grain of wood in a table, the shade of magnolia on the wall, a tiny section of visible armrest and an old and apparently unrelated club video, that Hall and thus Chalobah himself was at their team’s training ground, a process that was at least as entertaining to watch as the majority of the Hornets’ games last season and certainly involved more creativity. At 11pm, the cat now being some distance from the bag, the player’s transfer was officially confirmed.
The following day Monaco’s Tiemoué Bakayoko posted, again on Instagram, a picture that also turned out to be of another club’s training ground. It required rather less detective work to work out the subtext of this one, given that it featured an actual pitch, Chelsea’s badge (and, indeed, their manager) was visible, and Bakayoko had decorated the image with four large arrows and several repetitions of the word “soon” in bold capitals. In case anyone required further help, the player had previously posted a picture of himself on the Eurostar with an English textbook. His move was announced on Saturday. Both players, as it happens, are central midfielders, the Frenchman arriving at Cobham hours after Chalobah’s departure to take his place in the Chelsea squad, or at least a much more lucrative and high-profile version of it.
There was something telling about the two pictures, which had revealed not only the identity of the players’ next employers but deeper truths about English football itself, and in particular about the one club the two deals had in common.
Both photographs were attempting to do the same job, in the same place. To find the stories they disclosed, one required a bit of effort; the other did all the work itself and then, to make sure everybody had noticed, attached some fireworks and set itself on fire. One was a whisper, the other a wailing klaxon – a klaxon clad in blinking neon and accompanied by a team of Red Arrows jets scribing key words in the sky using multicoloured vapour.
England’s Under-21s now need Premier League games or it will count for nothing | Ed Aarons Read more
Had two different clubs been involved, one could have been criticised for refusing to do the hard work, for only recognising talent after it has been hyped to the heavens. Yet Chelsea, with six FA Youth Cup wins in the last eight years, boast the best and busiest youth system in England. They had spotted Chalobah as a 10-year-old and nurtured his talent through 12 years, half as many loan spells and 97 England caps at a variety of age groups, culminating last year in him making one start and nine substitute appearances for them in the Premier League. And then they lost him, for an initial £5m, before moving for someone four months older, eight times as expensive and carrying a different passport. Chelsea did the hard work. Then they undid it.
A club should consider a £40m signing not as a source of pride but as evidence of dismal failure. Effective scouting operations should be able to get by without an outsized chequebook. Though Corentin Tolisso and Alexandre Lacazette, whose moves are two of the biggest of this summer so far, had both spent their entire careers at Lyon, the rest of the window’s 10 biggest transfers to date had all changed clubs at least once already. The two biggest sales by English teams, Romelu Lukaku and Michael Keane, had previously been owned and disowned by Chelsea and Manchester United respectively. Logically the aim must be to catch the best young players on the first rungs of the ladder, before they make their names and inflate their values.
But perhaps, sometimes at least, it isn’t. It could be that clubs find global audiences particularly appreciative of the teams most crammed with expensively assembled headline players, and therefore more keen to clothe themselves in their branded leisurewear and consume the products of their official noodle partners. In other words, for elite, globally-renowned football clubs, spending more money leads directly to earning even more money. So Chelsea might have been disappointed to lose a brilliant young midfielder for a pittance, but on the plus side it gives them the chance to buy him back in the future, when he is a bit more famous and a lot more expensive.
Or maybe it’s just a British thing. Many years ago the nation’s finest goldsmiths could have decorated the crown jewels with Manx agate, Cornish amethyst and Blue John from Derbyshire and still their creations would have evoked awe and wonder. Instead, though, we plundered the most splendid gemstones from across the globe, brought them home and swiftly mounted them upon the nearest sceptre. Whether on a football field or a monarch’s head, we are a people that appreciates objects of great beauty and quality – especially if they are extraordinarily valuable and used to be somebody else’s. | {
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PDF-Version: On the Thread of Time – Inflation of the State
Yesterday
An achievement as clear and solid in the theoretical and political field as the settlement of the question of the state in Marx Engels and Lenin – so much so that in the post-war period it seemed that the revolutionary communist movement had to work on questions of organisation and tactics, but never again on questions of the programme – is seriously compromised when one can afford to call oneself an exponent of Marxist and Leninist parties those who conceive and propose in the national field a programmatic agreement with the bourgeois parties on the level of the “constitution”; on the international level, a historical and social collaboration between “proletarian” States and capitalist States.
Our basic texts do, first of all, justice to the vision of the State, which is inherent in the theocratic and authoritarian conceptions, and their own views of the immanentist democratic-bourgeoisie.
Both systems set the goal of the whole race of thought and history the building of the perfect and eternal State.
In the Old Testament which is still dogmatically accepted by churches prevailing in much of the advanced world, the Eternal Father himself is mobilised to dictate to Moses a true and proper Constitution for the chosen people in all its details. In the organic nature of this church system, justice, State and army form one, they even track the statistics and administrative division of the geographically defined territory, as well as the rules for putting the former occupants to the sword if they do not decide to evacuate it. Then Christianity will come to extend the boundaries of the chosen people to all of humanity, to distinguish the city of God from the city of Caesar, the priestly hierarchy from the military hierarchy, while being careful, however, not to deny the rules of authority, domination and extermination established by the first and greatest of the prophets.
In the new systems of modern critical bourgeois thought, the dogma and authority of revelation are shaken, but among many myths, the state remains intact and even more obsessive. From Luther to Hegel, from Hobbes to Robespierre the definitions of the new Leviathan rise, which Marx Engels Lenin will come to mock by stripping away and demolishing: “reality of the moral idea” – “image and reality of reason” – “realisation of the Idea”, sentences that Lenin assimilates to that of “Kingdom of God on earth” in the repeated violent attacks on the ignoble “superstition of the State”.
“The state … is a product of society at a certain stage of its development” (Engels). The State appears when society is divided into economically antagonistic classes, when class struggle appears. “The state is nothing more than a machine for the oppression of one class by another” (Marx).
In all capitalist countries, anywhere in the world and at any time in their history, since there can be no capitalism without class struggle, this machine is present, and has the same function of exercising the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie” (Lenin) both in the monarchy and in the most democratic of the Republics (Marx).
Let’s say once again that in this construction of ours the state of the capitalist bourgeoisie is not the last state machine in history (as the anarchists want us to think). The working class cannot “use” it (as all the reformists and opportunists claim), it must “smash” it, and must build a new state in the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.
This workers’ state, dialectically opposed to the capitalist state, will go, in the course of building the communist economy, by dissolving, deflating, deteriorating, until it disappears.
Let us now return to the historical process of development of the current and concrete capitalist state to examine its historical course, while waiting for, according to the Marxist vision, its burial and subsequently also the burial of the state without adjectives.
The capitalist state, under our very eyes of a generation torn apart by three bourgeois peaces straddling two universal imperialist wars, frighteningly swells, takes on the proportions of Moloch, a devourer of immolated victims, of the Leviathan with its belly swollen with treasures crushing billions of living. If one could really as in the exercises of philosophical speculation tailor the Individual, Society, Humanity, the whole horizon of these innocent beings would be invaded during their sleep by the State Incubus.
Of this frightening monster we (who in our revolutionary state foresee the gradual dissolution, the Auflösung), we expect on the contrary from storm to storm, the Sprengung expected by Marx, the terrible but luminous Explosion.
Our demand is therefore not to ask it to soften, reduce and restore itself to a human “line”, but to hasten, under the pressure of its inexorable internal laws and the class hatred they generate, the completion of its horrible swelling.
The inflation of the State in the modern world has two directions, the social and geographical, territorial. They are intimately connected. The second is fundamental. State and territory were born together. Engels in The Origin of Family, Private Property and State says in fact: as distinct from the old gentile order, the state, first, divides its subjects according to territory.
This applies to the ancient state, for the feudal one, for the modern one. If Moses dictatorially gave each of the twelve tribes a precise and boundless province of the promised land of Israel, if the Popes and Emperors invested the medieval Lords of Terre and Vassalli, the modern civil and democratic states of today sort masses of population among the territories like herds of cattle, they are handled like stocks of mad commodities, of prisoners of war, of political internees, of invading fugitives, of landless refugees, migrant proletarians; the Peplos of Liberty to which incense burns is now woven with barbed wire.
As for the extension of territory, the ancient world presents us with small state units reduced to the city and large empires derived from military conquests, The Middle Ages show us small autonomous municipalities and large state complexes. The capitalist world offers, instead, the decidedly uninterrupted concentration on immense extensions of state units, and the increasingly total domination of the great over the small.
This process is entirely parallel to the increase in interference by the state machine in all phases of the lives of the populations it dominates, to the spread of such influence from the political sphere, of police, juridical, always more explicitly and suffocatingly to the social, economic and physical.
Already in State and Revolution (Chap. II section 2) Lenin gives of this internal process a decisive analysis referred to all the countries of Europe and America, and especially to the more parliamentary and republican.
“Imperialism–the era of bank capital, the era of gigantic capitalist monopolies, of the development of monopoly capitalism into state-monopoly capitalism–has clearly shown an unprecedented growth in its bureaucratic and military apparatus in connection with the intensification of repressive measures against the proletariat both in the monarchical and in the freest, republican countries”.
Words written in 1917.
The substantial lie of the juridical and political construction proper to the dominant bourgeoisie can only be highlighted by recalling the presentation of the two world wars as struggles for the demands of autonomy and freedom of individuals, of ethnic and national groups, of small states in their unlimited sovereignty. Instead, they were gigantic and bloody stages in the concentration of state power and capitalist domination.
In the theory of bourgeois law, as the individual is protected by a series of illusory prerogatives in the face of public power, namely the right to think, speak, write, associate, vote, in any direction – but not to eat! The hungry could choose the table where the selfless body of the Solons sits! – so it is claimed that within its territorial boundaries, to travel them ten or ten thousand kilometres, every state is sovereign and can administer itself as it wishes.
But already in the rosy and mother-of-pearl painting of the late nineteenth century there was a distinction between Great and Small Powers. Leaving aside America that “did not do foreign policy” in Europe, there were six of them, England beautifully alone, Russia and France in the Double Alliance, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in the Triple. In the East, Japan’s aspiration to control Asia was growing, as already the false Malthusian North America spread its hegemony over that of the Central South. From time to time history had already reduced to the rank of ex-powers Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Turkey…
To hear the chatter, war broke out not because the strongest capitalist states were hungry for larger empires and markets, but because the sovereignty of a small free state, Serbia, had been offended by the arrogance of the despotic empire of Vienna.
The defeat of the Germans eliminated two world powers and the Russian Revolution put a third one out of the equation.
The enormous liberal lie proclaimed to the four winds the self-determination of the small nationalities and the liberation of the oppressed people. The five large victorious military states allowed the birth, apparently of small new powers, more or less historic, in old Europe, not giving up, however, a square kilometre of their own empires on people of the most varied language and colour. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Croatia and Slovenia (joined with Serbia), Albania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania were constituted in “sovereign” states.
In fact, this whole pleiad of small states, united with traditional states because of the aims and characteristics of the modern organisation of world production and market, only served to form satellite constellations for the hegemonies that were trying to be born. France and England competed in this field by dividing Central Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, agreeing nevertheless to attack the proletarian Russia of the time; even Italy competed with the success we know, while the United States in the West and Japan in the East continued to expand the visible and invisible limits of their domination.
Today
On the eve of the Second World War, it was already clear, both for the further monopolistic evolution of big capitalism, both for that of military technology which increasingly required masses of formidable economic means, that any state with a few million inhabitants could not exercise any diplomatic or military economic autonomy and had to put itself in the orbit and in the awe of a greater one. Meanwhile, Germany rose again and, following the general historical law – not inventing it as one would have the eyes believe – it reabsorbed the remaining pieces of the dissolved Austro-Hungarian Empire (which, by the way, if it had the worst literature it also had the best serious and most honest contemporary administration). Russia, carrying out a historical cycle of the greatest interest starting with the demand for national autonomy in the midst of the struggle between the old and new regimes, in turn settled into a powerful unitary state complex.
It was so clear that in the new diplomatic and military game, only the big state beasts would matter, who were the only ones able to rely on appreciable forces in a war, especially a naval and air war, long, cumbersome, costly to prepare, and requiring not only immense capital but also great geographical distances between bases and political borders. The densely populated countries know a little about this, which is that they also have, with a lot of population and maybe wealth, relative small extension. Also among the “great powers” of yesterday Germany, England, France Italy, Japan, with varying political outcomes, have been subjected to tremendous military beatings.
Even this war of more ferocious domination and concentration of destructive power was presented as a call for freedom and sovereignty offended by the bullies of the “little ones” of history. It was started to prevent Hitler from overwhelming free Poland, fresh from the reattachment with democratic glue of three historical pieces. It was immediately broken in two and divided between the two giants that flanked it. Once one of the two disappeared, it is again in a single piece in the service of a single master. The worst fate for a romantic, generous, civilised and free nation with a capital N is this one of today, the “division into one”.
The truly surviving states are those that have won in the unbridled race for territorial inflation. It began very early, without giving up the daily litany of freedom, to talk about the Greats. Were they Three, Four, Two or Five? It doesn’t matter much. There were at least eight of them at the start of the war.
The true Greats are those who, to the vastness of their own territory and to the numerous population (for the effect of this data must be followed by China, where a truly great State of a modern capitalist type would arise despite the deep social hybridism) add a vast constellation of Satellites, left to play with the fiction of Sovereignty, while their managerial staff is increasingly drunk, corrupt and bought in the tea and cocaine houses that are the big international conferences and political councils.
Italy has fallen into the most vile of satellites, Great Britain and France will see if they are satisfied with the place of first Lord and first Lady in the American Constellation. On the other hand, there is the Russian Constellation, struggling with some undisciplined planet that would like to jump out of the sphere of primitive attraction.
The Great Monsters are thus reduced to two in essence. Will they go towards unification by the means of Peace or by the means of War? It will be tremendous in both cases. But it will be just as terrible as for the third time, after each one devoured half the large and small zoological species of the earth’s political map, will attack each other accusing themselves of wanting to devour the sacred freedom of the last mouse.
Source: “Battaglia Comunista”, No. 38, 5-12 October 1949. | {
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The Google Nexus 5 release date has been teased as October 30, with retailer Amazon listing the launch alongside a leaked Nexus 5 case.
Suggesting the third-party peripheral for the upcoming Google phone will go on sale later this month, Amazon.co.uk has inadvertently suggested that the Google Nexus 5 release date will be held on October 30.
The subject of much rumour and speculation, the Google Nexus 5 release date has been mooted to fall a number of times in October, with announcements on both the 28th and 31st having previously been tipped. At present Google has yet to offer any indication as to when its Google Nexus 4 follow-on will touch down.
Dubbed the Ringke Fusion, the Google Nexus 5 case is a shock absorbing bumper that will come bundled with an anti-scratch screen protector .
Shown alongside a render of the upcoming phone, the leaked case has offered no concrete details on the as yet unconfirmed phone, with no insight into the handset’s dimensions.
According to recent Google Nexus 5 rumours, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and LG G2 rival will play host to a 5-inch 1080p Full HD display alongside a redesigned, soft-touch rear body.
With a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor set to run the show, the Google Nexus 5 specs sheet looks set to be further enhanced by 2GB of RAM, a 3000mAh Lithium-Polymer battery and the option of 16GB or 32GB storage capacities.
On a camera front, the Google Nexus 5 will reportedly host an 8-megapixel rear-mounted snapper alongside a 2-megapixel secondary option up front. The Google Nexus 5 will be the first device to come pre-installed with the new Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.
Read More: iPhone 6 rumours | {
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DENVER — Human nature and politics being what they are, Republicans will underestimate the trouble they’re in, and Democrats will be eager to overestimate the strength of their post-2012 position.
Begin with the GOP: As Republicans dig out from a defeat that their poll-deniers said was impossible, they need to acknowledge many large failures.
Their attempts to demonize President Obama and undercut him by obstructing his agenda didn’t work. Their assumption that the conservative side would vote in larger numbers than Democrats was wrong. The tea party was less the wave of the future than a remnant of the past. Blocking immigration reform and standing by silently while nativist voices offered nasty thoughts about newcomers were bad ideas. Latino voters heard it all and drew the sensible electoral conclusion.
Democrats are entitled to a few weeks of reveling because their victory really was substantial. Obama won all but one of the swing states and a clear popular vote majority. The Democrats added to their Senate majority in a year that began with almost everyone predicting they’d lose seats. They even won a plurality of the vote in House races; Republicans held on because of gerrymandering.
Just as important, the voters repudiated the very worst aspects of post-Bush conservatism: its harsh tone toward those in need, its doctrinaire inflexibility on taxes, its inclination toward extreme pronouncements on social issues, and its hard anti-government rhetoric that ignored the pragmatic attitude of the electorate’s great middle about what the public sector can and can’t do. If conservatives are at all reflective, we should be in for a slightly less rancid and divisive debate over the next couple of years.
Yet Obama and his party need to understand that running a majority coalition is difficult. It involves dealing with tensions that inevitably arise in a broad alliance. Democrats won because of huge margins among African-Americans, Latinos and Asians, but also because of a solid white working-class vote in states such as Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, particularly from union members. Obama needs to think about economic policies that deliver benefits across this wide spectrum of less well-to-do Americans. A longing for balanced budgets is not what drove these voters to the polls.
At the same time, there was a substantial middle- and upper-middle-class suburban component of the Democratic coalition that is moderate or liberal on social issues and sees the GOP as backward-looking. Many voters in this group bridle at sweeping anti-government bromides because they care about essential government functions, notably education. But they are certainly not classic New Deal or Great Society Democrats.
Such voters are central to what has become known as the “Colorado strategy.” It’s a view that the Democrats’ long-term future depends on moderate, younger and suburban voters, especially women, combined with the growing Latino electorate. And in Colorado itself, this strategy worked exactly as advertised.
As Curtis Hubbard, The Denver Post’s editorial page editor, noted, Obama won big in the party’s bastions in Denver and Boulder. But he also won Jefferson and Arapahoe counties, key Denver-area swing suburbs, and, a bit farther away, in Larimer County around Fort Collins. The Democrats’ victory here had depth: The party recaptured the state House of Representatives while holding the state Senate.
Managing a coalition that includes African-Americans, Latinos, white working-class voters and suburbanites in the new and growing metro areas will take skill and subtlety. And Democrats need to recognize that some of their core constituencies — young people, African-Americans and Latinos — typically vote in lower numbers in off-year elections. The party requires a strategy for 2014.
But these are happy problems compared with what the GOP and the conservative movement confront. They need to rethink their approach all the way down.
Many conservatives seem to hope that a more open attitude toward immigration will solve the Republicans’ Latino problem and make everything else better. It’s not that simple. For one thing, a more moderate stand on immigration could create new divisions in the party. And its weaknesses among both Latinos and women owe not simply to immigration or to social issues, respectively, but also to the fact that both groups are more sympathetic to government’s role in the economy and in promoting upward mobility than current conservative doctrine allows.
A party that wants to govern has to do more than run against government. For the right, this is the inconvenient truth of 2012.
E.J. Dionne’s e-mail address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com. | {
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Aide Memoire
• We are aware of and surprised by, the reports in the media of
last 24 hours, compared to that Ecuador would reach a decision and intends to grant asylum
Mr. Assange.
• The reports quoted official sources.
• We note that the President has not yet made a decision.
• We are concerned, should be true of. this undermines our efforts to agree a
joint text setting out the positions of both countries, allowing Mr. Assange leave
the Embassy.
• As we have stated previously, we meet our legal obligations under the
Framework Decision on the European Arrest Warrant and Extradition Act 2003
(Extradition Act 2003), to arrest and extradite Mr. Assange to Sweden. We remain committed
to work with you to resolve this matter amicably. But we must be absolutely
clear that this means that if you receive a request for safe passage for Mr.
Assange, after granting asylum, it will be denied, in line with our obligations
legal.
• From this perspective, and given the statements of the last 24 hours, we hope that you
are prepared to continue to carry out the current diplomatic discussions. We
believing that a solution is possible based on jointly agreed text, that would play with
to the departure of Mr. Assange of the Embassy, leading to his extradition.
• We have another meeting (video conference) scheduled for Thursday August 16. Given the
statements made yesterday in Quito, about an imminent decision, should we assume that this
meeting will be the last to agree a joint text?
• We reiterate that we consider the continued use of diplomatic facilities in this way
incompatible with the Vienna Convention and unsustainable, and that we have made clear the serious
implications for our diplomatic relations.
• They must be aware that there is a basis in the UK - Facilities Act
Diplomatic and Consular 1987 (Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987) - we
would take action to arrest Mr. Assange in existing facilities of the Embassy.
• We sincerely hope not to have to get to this point, but if you can not resolve the
issue of the presence of Mr. Assange in its facilities, this route is open to us.
• You understand the importance of the issues raised by Mr. Assange, and
public pressure in Ecuador. But anyway we have to solve the situation in the
Instead, here in the UK, in line with our legal obligations. We have endeavored to
develop a joint text, to help satisfy their concerns and needs of
presentation to the public.
• We continue to believe that a joint text and a voluntary surrender by Mr. Assange is the | {
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Fer's first international goal came in Brazil
Norwich City manager Neil Adams expects a battle to keep hold of World Cup goalscorer Leroy Fer.
The 24-year-old was on target for World Cup semi-finalists Netherlands in the group victory over Chile.
Fer was relegated from the Premier League with the Canaries last season and has since been linked with QPR. external-link
"Leroy Fer, after the summer he has had, of course there is going to be interest in him," Adams admitted to BBC Radio Norfolk.
"He's having a much-deserved rest now and hopefully we get him back and he is a Norwich player. We have to wait and see."
Potential Norwich City departures Leroy Fer - reportedly attracting interest from QPR Ricky van Wolfswinkel - was left out of Neil Adams' squad for final game of last season Sebastien Bassong - has been playing with U21s and is a doubt to travel on Italy tour Luciano Becchio - also playing with U21s and left out of squad for Braintree
Midfielder Fer scored four goals in 32 appearances for Norwich last season after joining from FC Twente.
"The phone is ringing, the chief executive is fielding calls," added Adams, who has already seen fans' player of the season Robert Snodgrass sold to Hull City.
"There's good players here and when you get relegated you are at the mercy of bigger clubs."
Fer's fellow Dutchman Ricky van Wolfswinkel had a less successful debut campaign in England.
The 25-year-old striker, a club record signing from Sporting Lisbon, managed just one goal all season and was left out of the squad for the final-day defeat by Arsenal, which confirmed Norwich's relegation to the Championship.
But he played the second 45 minutes of Tuesday's 6-1 friendly win at Braintree external-link and was on target twice.
"It was great for him to score goals. Whether it's in training or in games, those guys like scoring goals," said Adams when asked about the former Utrecht forward's future.
"We know he had a tough time of it last year. I'm delighted for him. It's great for him to get the goals." | {
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The Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s was arguably one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century. New computer simulations reveal the whipped-up dust is what made the drought so severe.
Scientists have known that poor land use and natural atmospheric conditions led to the rip-roaring dust storms in the Great Plains in the 1930s. Climate models in the past few years also have revealed the effect of sea surface temperatures on the Dust Bowl.
"What is new and what had not been done before is to work out whether the dust storms from the drought and land use had any impact on the drought," said Richard Seager of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) in New York.
And they did.
"You had dust storms that were unprecedented in the recent historical record," said lead researcher Benjamin Cook of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "So it was on the level of dust emissions that nobody in living memory and probably much before that had ever seen."
Using computer simulations, Cook, Seager and Ronald Miller of LDEO found the "black blizzards" exacerbated the drought and pushed it northward into the Great Plains.
The airborne dust particles reflected sunlight back into space, leading to cooler surface temperatures. As temperatures dipped, so did evaporation. "You basically cut off the moisture source to clouds and precipitation," Cook said.
Following the Dust Bowl disaster, agencies enacted land-use rules to reduce soil erosion and prevent further such catastrophic dust storms in the United States.
Even so, the researchers say, global warming and an increased pressure to expand agriculture in light of a possible food crisis are creating conditions ripe for dust storms in other regions worldwide.
"This is the type of phenomenon that potentially we could start seeing in places like China," Cook told LiveScience, "where you're having some desertification problems, and you're having a lot of land degradation."
The study, detailed online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA. | {
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Today is a super exciting day for me! Back For Seconds has a new home!!
Do you like the new diggs?
I am so thrilled with the way it all turned out. I was working with an excellent designer and she really captured me in the design. I feel like my site is “official” now. 😉
Please make sure you subscribe to the new address. And see those cute little cakes on my sidebar? They will take you to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. I’d love to see you there!
(PS: I am brand new to WordPress, so hopefully this will be a smooth transition without too many bumps along the way. If you have any tips for me – please share!)
So welcome to my home! Take off your shoes and get comfy. I hope you will stick around awhile and of course, keep coming back for seconds!
While you’re here, would you like some pie? I should warn you – this is no ordinary pie. It’s a nutella oreo cheesecake deep dish cookie pie. Whew! That’s a mouthful, I know. But with so many stellar ingredients, how could I leave any out of the title??
Oh, and it’s an ooey gooey pie. *Swoon* The texture is what you would expect if cheesecake and a cookie had a baby and then nutella, melty chocolate chips, and oreos came over to celebrate.
I’m pretty sure I ate 3/4 of this pie All.By.Myself.
No regrets.
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Non-vegetarian food is not allowed in the girls’ hostels at Banaras Hindu University, a central university, while there are no such restrictions for boys, said Janata Dal (United) Member of the Rajya Sabha, Ali Anwar Ansari during Zero Hour on Monday. The issue was raised during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Monday with no response from the Government
There was no response from the Treasury benches even as the MP listed several indiscretions of the VC. The MP drew attention of the HRD Ministry and sought the Government’s intervention while citing some of them.
Prospectus of the BHU holds out the promise of a 24-hour cyber library. But a year ago the VC stopped the library from functioning at night. Some students sat on a dharna in protest and nine of them, most of them Dalits, OBCs and from minority communities, were expelled from the college.
A scuffle between two groups of students led the university to file an FIR and invite the police to the campus. Several students have been arbitrarily debarred from appearing in examinations and guardians of several others are being called and threatened with expulsion of their wards.
Besides the bar on non-veg food, girls at BHU are being prevented from using mobile phones after 9 pm. They are also subjected to curfew hours and asked to report to their hostels before 8 pm.
There is no Wi-fi (Internet connection) in the girls’ hostel.
Students are being forced to submit an affidavit at the time of admission and commit that they would not take part in any protest or agitation in the campus.
While the MP also tried to raise the issue of students’ unrest in JNU, he was not allowed to do so for paucity of time. | {
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New Year Resolutions : जब भी नया साल (New Year) आता है तो सभी की यह इच्छा (Desire) होती है कि कुछ नया किया जाये जिससे Life में कुछ सकारात्मक बदलाव (Positive change) आएं।
नववर्ष एक ऐसा अच्छा मौका (Good opportunity) होता है जिसमे आप New Year Resolutions लेकर अपने जीवन को Best बना सकते हैं और यह नए साल के संकल्प आपको Life में Success भी दिला सकते हैं।
हमारी बहुत सी ऐसी Habits होती हैं जो न तो दूसरों को अच्छी लगती हैं और न ही खुद को अच्छी लगती हैं। ऐसे में हमें Resolution ideas की बहुत Need होती है। हमें अपनी आवश्यकता के अनुसार एक या अधिक New year resolution को जरूर अपनाना चाहिए।
हो सकता है आप में से किसी को Resolutions की कोई जरूरत न हो और आप अपनी Life, अपनी Habits से Satisfied हों लेकिन जिंदगी का Development हमेशा चलता रहना चाहिए।
अगर आप कोई Bad Habit नहीं रखते है तो अच्छी बात है लेकिन Good Habits को तो आप अपनी जिंदगी में Add कर सकते है और उसके लिए आपको New year के इन Resolutions की Need होगी।
अतः हम सभी को एक या कई संकल्पों (Resolutions) को New year में जरूर अपनाना चाहिए। जरूरी नहीं आप इन जीवन के संकल्प को 1 January से ही अपनाएं, आप इन Great Ideas को नववर्ष में कभी भी अपना सकते हैं।
दोस्तों ! आज मैं आपको New year resolution ideas की एक List देने जा रहा हूँ। यह नए साल के संकल्प की List आपको Good Habits को अपनाने और Bad Habits को छोड़ने में बहुत Help करेगी।
अब आप इस New year’s resolutions को ध्यान से पढ़िए और जो भी Resolution Tips आपको अच्छे लगें उसे तुरंत अपना लें और अपनी Life को Successful बनायें–
नववर्ष के लिए संकल्प
New Year Resolutions in Hindi
1- परेशानियों में भी सकारात्मक सोचने की आदत (Habit of positive thinking) डालें।
2- महीने में कम से कम एक बार किसी जरूरतमंद (Needy) की Help जरूर करें।
3- आप उन Activities को जो अंधविश्वास (Blind faith) से Related हों, उनको छोड़ दीजिये।
4- अपनी Health का हमेशा ध्यान रखें। Doctor से Regular Check Up कराएं।
5- हमेशा यह कोशिश करें कि आपका कोई भी कार्य Pending में न रहे।
6- अपने अंदर Sense Of Humor की Feeling को बढाइये।
7- अपनी Body Language को Positive और Impressive बनाइये।
8- पानी (Water) का उतना ही इस्तेमाल करें जितनी जरूरत (Need) हो।
9- Self Satisfaction के लिए अपनें कार्य (Work) खुद ही करें।
10- उतना ही खाना बनायें या खाएं या अपनी थाली में परोसें जितनी Need हो।
11- दिन में कम से कम 5 मिनट God का ध्यान जरूर करें।
12- रोज सही समय (Right Time) पर सोने की आदत (Habit) डालें।
13- रोज सही समय पर खाना खाने की आदत (Habit) डालें।
14- दोस्त बनाने में Quantity (बहुत से दोस्त) की जगह Quality (अच्छे दोस्त) का ध्यान रखें।
15- चाहे कम बस्तुओं का प्रयोग करें लेकिन अच्छी क्वालिटी (Good Quality) की ही प्रयोग करें।
16- कभी किसी की भूल से भी मजाक (Mocking) न बनायें।
17- अधिकारों (Rights) के साथ अपने कर्तव्यों (Duties) का भी ध्यान जरूर रखें।
18- फालतू के खर्चों (Wasteful expenses) की लिस्ट बनायें और उन्हें कम कर दें।
19- रोज सुबह या शाम (Morning or Evening) व्यायाम करने की आदत डालें।
20- प्रत्येक दिन कम से कम 5 पेज किसी Motivational book को जरूर पढ़ें।
21- रोज Newspaper को पढ़ने की आदत (Habit) डालें।
22- प्रत्येक महीने कुछ ऐसा करें जिससे आपकी Earning बढ़े।
23- आप जो भी कमाते हों, उसका कम से कम 20% जरूर Save करें।
24- पैसा Save होने पर अपना कुछ पैसा Investment में लगाएं।
25- रोज अपनी Personal Diary लिखने की आदत डालें।
26- किसी अच्छे NGO को प्रत्येक महीनें कुछ समय (Time) जरूर दें।
27- जिन चीजों को आप Use करते हैं, उनको साफ़ रखने (Neat and clean) की आदत डालें।
28- सुबह को जल्दी उठने की आदत (Habit of getting up early in the morning) जरूर डालें।
29- दिन में कम से कम एक बार खुलकर हंसे (Laugh uncontrollably)।
30- कभी भी न तो रिश्वत (Bribery) लें और न ही कभी रिश्वत दें।
31- अपने गुस्से को काबू (Control your anger) करना सीख लें।
32- अपनी Knowledge को दूसरों को शेयर (Share) करना सीखें।
33- समय को कभी भी बर्बाद न करें। (Do not waste your Time)
34- प्रत्येक काम समय पर करने की आदत (Do the work on time) डालें।
35- जो भी काम करें, उसे करने से पहले अच्छी योजना जरूर बना लें (Make good plan)।
36- हमेशा खुश रहें (Always be happy) और अपने परिवार को भी खुश रखें।
37- अपनी Daily Life को हमेशा अच्छा और Qualitative बनाने की आदत डालें।
38- Internet पर हमेशा अच्छी चीजों को ही पढ़ें, देखें और Search करें।
39- जीवन में सफलता (Success in life) को पाना है तो बहानें बनाना छोड़ दें (Leave excuse)।
40- दिन में एक बार किसी Motivational Blog को जरूर पढ़ा करें।
41- हमेशा Active और Energetic रहने की आदत (Habit) डालें।
42- आलस से तो हमेशा के लिए विदा ले लीजिये (Leave your Laziness)।
43- न तो किसी की बुराई करें और न ही किसी की बुराई सुनें (Do not “Back Bite”)।
44- Mobile का Use केवल जरूरत होने पर ही करें।
45- शराब और सिगरेट को छोड़ दें। (Leave the Habit of Alcohol and cigarettes)
46- हफ्ते में एक बार अपने परिवार (Family) के साथ पूरे दिन Enjoy रहें।
47- झूठ बोलने की आदत को छोड़ दें (Do not tell a lie)।
48- अपने सामाजिक दायरे (Social circle) को बढ़ाएं और किसी Social club के member बनें।
49- प्रत्येक महीने कम से कम दो नए काम जरूर करें जो अच्छे हों (Do good and new work)।
50- यदि अधिक यात्रा करते हों तो यात्रा के समय का सही उपयोग करें (Use travel time)।
51- काम को टालने की आदत को छोड़ दें (Stop Procrastinating)।
52- हमेशा बड़े सपने (Always Make Big Goals) देखें और जब तक आपके सपने पूरे न हो जाये तब तक उन्हें टूटने न दें।
53- जीवन में पैसों का होना बहुत जरुरी है। अतः आपके पास एक अच्छी Financial Planning होनी चाहिए।
54- अपनी Personal Life, Social Life और Professional Life को Balance करना सीखें।
55- हमेशा खुद पर (Self Confidence) और आप जिस God को मानते हैं, उस पर पूरा विश्वास रखें। आप सफल जरूर होंगे।
दोस्तों! इन 51 New Year Resolutions में से जो भी आपको अच्छी लगें या जिनकी आपको जरूरत हो, उनको आप अपनी Life में अपना सकते हैं। यह Successful Life Tips आपकी Life को Successful बना सकते हैं और आपके New Year को Happy New Year में बदल सकते हैं।
New Year Resolutions से related आप हमारे यह Articles भी पढ़ सकते हैं– | {
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Posed in a sitting positions 'cause I think she looks too cute like that. ^^ The original commissioner decided that they no longer want her. And as much as I'd like to keep her for myself, she's for sale on ebay. www.ebay.com/itm/121160105390?… | {
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Well, look who's back! Hello. This is your favourite weekly update blog! Last week was interesting, to say the least. Last weekend, I decided to bring The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the Nintendo switch.
I must say that the experience was very satisfying. Although the game itself is still a bit outdated in terms of game design, it remains quite memorable. Also, with an almost identical conception of rooms (especially dungeons rooms), I was able to experiment a bit with my own room designs too. So without any further ados, let's dive right into it!
New Rooms Mechanics
While playing Link's Awakening, I realized that most enemies in Zelda games were not as complex as I originally thought. With this realization came another question: if it's not the enemies that make the game fun, then what is it? After a few hours of play, it became very clear...
Zelda games are known for two things: their dungeons and their puzzles. In our case, the "dungeons" part is already taken care of. This leaves us with the star of this post: puzzles!
Puzzle Pieces
So last week I was cooking up a puzzle system. The idea was to have a solid puzzle system from which to build semi-complex puzzles. With it, we can also have compound puzzles.
Each puzzle can have two possible states: on or off. Some compound puzzles wait until all their sub-puzzles are cleared before turning themselves on. It's also possible to invert the puzzle too.
A compound puzzle can also have different logic gates. By default, a compound puzzle uses the AND gate. We can also have an OR gate and even an XOR gate. Paired with the inverter, we get the full logical gates range!
Puzzles can also freeze. Frozen puzzles won't be able to change their on/off state anymore. Quite handy when a puzzle is finished!
But anyway, let's take a look at some puzzle elements!
Toggle Switches
First up, here's the toggle switch. Basically, it is a switch that activates interacting with it with the "e" key. Each switch can also interact with other switches. With this, we can create complex puzzles that are quite interesting to solve.
Pressure Plates
And finally, here is the pressure plate. To activate it, just press the button down. This can be done by either pushing a heavy object onto it or just standing on it.
Some pressure plates need constant pressure to stay "on" while others will freeze up once activated. Just look at the colour of the plate to find out.
And that's about it for the puzzle as of yet. I still have to integrate puzzles into rooms and also refactor the game flow so to include puzzles. I also want to add more type of puzzles and perhaps even change the map generation to add even more puzzles.
In other words, a bunch of work ahead!
Minor Updates
Changed ice floors: Now ice floors have walls. This is especially noticable when surrounded by either chasms or liquids.
Refactored the screen brightness modifiers so that they also include tints: This way I can more closely simulate the dark brown tint of sunglasses.
Added a mechanism allowing players to break down any obstacles that would have been broken only by bombs. However, players must be strong enough and have the right kind of weapon.
Added a ColorModifierStack class that acts as a ModifierStack but for colours.
Next Week
I have to say that playing at Zelda allowed me to realign my priorities and also showed me how to do the parts principle well. Before I thought that what should be improved was the bosses.
However, Link's Awakening showed me that a game does not need a complex boss to be fun.
Although bosses remain a priority, it's far less important than puzzles. Thus I'm planning on working on those puzzle bits first. Then perhaps it's really gonna be boss time.
Aside from that, it's your usual suspect...
I'm really feeling great about puzzles, though. It can potentially bring a whole lot of depth to an otherwise quite dry game...
So yeah, that's about it! | {
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NAYPYITAW (Reuters) - Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) proposed a close friend of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as its presidential candidate on Thursday, ending a four-month wait for the identity of the president expected to rule in her name.
The NLD nominated Htin Kyaw, who joined the party just two months ago, as its lower house candidate. Thanks to the party’s crushing majority, that makes him near-certain to become titular head of the country’s first democratically elected government since the army seized power in 1962 when the full parliament votes next week.
The wildly popular Suu Kyi and the NLD won a landslide electoral victory in November, but she is barred from holding the presidency herself under a junta-drafted 2008 constitution because her children are not Myanmar citizens.
Suu Kyi has said that she would run the country regardless through a proxy. Until Thursday, she and the NLD leadership had kept the identity of their nominee a closely guarded secret even from rank-and-file MPs.
Htin Kyaw runs a charity founded by Suu Kyi and has been a trusted member of her inner circle since the mid-1990s. He is not a lawmaker.
NLD central executive committee member Han Tha Myint confirmed to Reuters that Htin Kyaw was the party’s preferred presidential candidate.
Suu Kyi told NLD lawmakers at a meeting after the nomination that she had considered the loyalty and discipline of Htin Kyaw and other candidates before making her choice.
“I believe the people will be happy about the results,” she said. “We’d like to form a government which is transparent.”
Candidates needed to be able to command the respect of both the domestic and international community, she added.
“I’m very happy,” said lower house NLD lawmaker Myint Myint Soe. “I believe our leader Aung San Suu Kyi chose the right people for these positions. I know U Htin Kyaw personally and I think he is a nice person.”
In an earlier statement, released before the nomination was revealed, Suu Kyi had urged patience from her supporters.
“The NLD is determined to meet people’s expectations and will do its best,” she said.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
INDIRECT ELECTION
Under Myanmar’s indirect system for electing a president, three candidates are nominated - one by the lower house, one by the upper house, and one by the military bloc in parliament, who under the constitution hold a quarter of seats in both houses.
After the candidates have been vetted by a parliamentary commission, both houses will come together to vote in a joint session, with the winner elected president and the two losing nominees becoming vice presidents.Suu Kyi told NLD lawmakers late on Thursday that the presidential vote would take place on March 15.
Because the NLD has a comfortable majority in both chambers it effectively controls two of the nominations.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
The NLD nominated Henry Van Thio, a member of the Chin ethnic group from Chin state in the country’s northwest bordering India and Bangladesh, as its candidate from the upper house.
The party wants Van Thio to become a vice president to represent the country’s myriad ethnic minorities, said executive committee member Han Tha Myint.
That is in line with Suu Kyi’s goal of forming a government for national reconciliation. She hopes to end conflict between state forces and numerous armed ethnic groups in the country.
“I am happy and honored personally, as well as a Chin ethnic, to be selected to do the highest duty for our country,” Van Thio said as he left parliament. “We, the ethnic people, will do our best for every sector in the nation-building process.”
The military has yet to make its nomination public. Local media have named Thet Swe, a former navy chief who stepped down last year to run in the election representing the far flung Coco Islands, as one of the possible nominees. The armed forces bloc of MPs, who will make their nomination separately, were not present at the parliament building on Thursday.
The president picks the cabinet that will take over from President Thein Sein’s outgoing government on April 1, with the exception of the heads of the home, defense and border security ministries who will be appointed by the armed forces chief. | {
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Sydney was blanketed in a smoky haze on Tuesday morning, after weekend hazard reduction burns left parts of the city with air quality so poor it was more than twice the hazardous level, and more than five times as bad as the air quality in Beijing.
Smoke from weekend hazard reductions, including a large state forest burn at Colo Heights on the weekend, was still covering Sydney on Tuesday, and NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman Ben Shepherd said it was not expected to clear until Wednesday.
Air quality in parts of Sydney was more than two times the hazardous level. Credit:Janie Barrett
"Over last 24 hours there haven't been any new ignitions, but some of those have continued to burn," he said.
"What we've seen across Sydney is relatively light winds, so a lot of this smoke has basically hung around in the basin, and moved around. | {
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“I’VE had people screaming on boats — women screaming — and you’ve got to stop them, if you can’t ask them nicely to stop screaming you give them a big slap, it usually helps.”
David Glasheen doesn’t hold back when hosting visitors to his deserted island.
“They don’t like it, but they understand later, you can’t have a woman screaming at you when she’s saying we’re all going to die.”
Glasheen is used to living life on the edge. As a millionaire stockbroker turned island castaway, he’s lived life, quite literally, on the wild side.
He welcomes visitors to his island, off the coast of Cape York where he’s lived since 1997, (he once hosted Russell Crowe), but, as he puts it, one must be prepared for the unexpected. And most city slickers are far from it.
“If things go wrong, your life is at risk and you’re really aware of it. The wild is pretty severe, it’s a tough world. Things are forever going wrong, and you’ve just got to deal with it.”
“You’ve got to work with the elements. People assume you turn the tap on and the water comes out. You start to realise it’s not like that. You’re in charge of all that here.”
Last month marked his 20-year anniversary as a real-life renegade — and despite his enduring survival on one of Australia’s toughest landscapes, it’s surprising to discover that it’s human interaction that interrupts his peace.
“You get people who are not used to danger and they may react, things can get ugly very quickly,” Glasheen tells news.com.au from his island home.
“Men can be worse. I’ve had men crying in boats wanting to turn back. I’m saying, ‘no we have to keep going, the island is up this way, we have to keep going. There’s nowhere to go back to’.
“You start to realise you’re a bit vulnerable, but you’ve got to do things rationally here. You have to learn to be calm and think, but it’s not easy when people are getting emotional around you, when you have to deal with a big guy who wants to dong you because he won’t do as he’s told.”
A stock market millionaire in the ‘80s, Glasheen was living the high life in Sydney as the chairman of a Sydney-based company that specialised in gold mining in Papua New Guinea.
At this stage he was worth a cool US$28.4 million, which he invested in luxury real estate along Sydney Harbour. But after the “Black Tuesday” crash (known to the rest of the world as the Black Monday crash) on October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones dropped a record 508 points, and subsequently, Glasheen’s stock began to rapidly drop too.
“I got whacked, I wasn’t aware it was going to happen. I should have sold the whole lot [of stocks].”
Glasheen lost $7.25 million that day alone, and the next few years would see his life spiral into bankruptcy and a broken family that couldn’t be pieced back together; he divorced his wife in 1991.
By 1993, after the banks had moved in, Glasheen heard of a lease available on an undeveloped 64-acre island within a national park in Cape York, on Australia’s remote peninsula: Restoration Island. The area has been described as the largest unspoilt wilderness in Northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth.
Feeling deserted on the mainland and looking for an excuse to leave, Glasheen walked away from his life and became Australia’s real life Robinson Crusoe four years later, in 1997.
It was the perfect escape; except for the annual grocery shop to Cairns, Glasheen spends most of his time on the island, where he has lived in a renovated WWII outpost.
Despite his plans to build a health retreat on the island, he describes his home as a “bush camp” with a “five-star environment” and “half-star accommodation”.
“There’s not many people you can communicate with in this area, there’s nothing to talk about,” he said.
“That’s really hard, probably the hardest thing.”
But despite his seemingly remote situation, he has internet access, a mobile phone — and even plays the stock market.
“I’m trying to use my brains again,” Glasheen explains.
“I’m trying to work miracles. So far, so good, I’m doing OK, nothing dramatic, but I think there are going to be terrific opportunities in the next couple of years.”
He wishes he was smart enough to have picked up on the Bitcoin trend, (“I hesitated a couple years ago”) but he has made some financial gains, thanks to a savvy conservative stock broker mate in Sydney who has “never had a wrong call yet”.
He reads a lot, and has an opinion on everything from North Korea to Donald Trump.
“Someone has to do something, it can’t keep going on the way it is,” he says of the situation with North Korea.
“Something will go awfully wrong and most people just don’t want to know about it.
“The rocket will reach this part of the world, they’re already talking about Darwin because the Yanks are putting more people there.
“This isn’t games, this is serious stuff.”
In fact he bet on both Brexit and President Trump because you “get terrific odds if you do it a long time out”.
“You take the odds when it seems ridiculous,” he advises.
“I wouldn’t call myself a Donald Trump fan but I think deep down he’s trying to clean the swamp up. He’s trying to, but whether he gets away with it or not, I don’t know.
“If he can sort that bloke out in North Korea, he will be the God.
“I worry about it. I read about this stuff, what happens when a nuclear thing shoots off? You think, ‘f*cking hell, this is more than just games. It’s real’.”
Yet ironically, it’s money Glasheen says is “part of the illness in our society, there’s no doubt about that”.
Despite the doom and gloom he says he misses the small enjoyments of life. Live theatre, he says, “is a thing to treasure”.
For Glasheen, this island existence is the perfect paradise. He says Australians are famously “mean”, but wouldn’t want to live any where else in the world. He has no motive to move back to the mainland, and plans to take his last breath here. He doesn’t see the point of living “outside” of the island.
“I’ve been offered places elsewhere in other countries. I love Australia, it’s a great country, it’s just got a lot of stupid people, that's the problem.
“We don’t appreciate how good the place is, it is one of the greatest places on earth, I don’t know a better place and I’ve travelled a fair bit.”
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NOT BEEN IMPLEMENTED SO FAR. KCRA 3’S BRANDI CUMMINGS WAS THERE. BRANDI: THE MESSAGE WAS CLEAR -- THE SACRAMENTO POLICE DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO IMPROVE ITS TRAINING AND INVESTIGATIONS. THE LIST SHOWS THE STATUS OF EACH OF THE 66 RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. THE COMMISSION AND THE PUBLIC ON MONDAY NIGHT GOT A STATUS REPORT. >> EVERY RECOMMENDATION HAS BEEN TAKEN UP. BRANDI: NEARLY TWO DOZEN OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS HAVE ALREADY BEEN IMPLEMENTED INCLUDING HAVING INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATE EVERY OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING AND CREATING A NEW FOOT PURSUIT POLICY. 17 OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS WILL BE ADDRESSED IN THE NEW USE OF FORCE POLICY REVISION EXPECTED TO BE RELEASED SOON. >> IT IS CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW BY THE UNION. BRANDI: THERE WAS A QUESTION ABOUT HOW THE PUBLIC WILL KNOW IF THE DEPARTMENT CHOOSES TO NOT ACCEPT CERTAIN DOJ RECOMMENDATIONS. >> I DO NOT BELIEVE WE OFFERED AN EXPLANATION ITEM BY ITEM. IN ORDER TO DO THAT, IT WOULD BE A LARGE UNDERTAKING. BRANDI: THAT IS OF CONCERN WERE PEOPLE LIKE RUSSELL WHO ATTENDED THE MEETING. >> I FELT THERE WAS A LACK OF CLARITY ON THE PROCESS AND ON THE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S ABILITY TO PICK UP OR COMPLETELY DENY SOME OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS LAID OUT. >> IT WAS CLEAR TO ME THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT WILL APPROVE OR DENY WHAT THEY FEEL IS MOST COMFORTABLE TO THEM. BRANDI: AND A QUESTION FROM COMMISSIONERS ABOUT WHETHER THE POLICY IS IN LINE WITH THE RECENT STATE OF FORCE LAW? >> MUCH OF THE WORDING WE ARE USING IN THAT COMES STRAIGHT OUT OF 392. BRANDI: IT IS UNCLEAR WHEN THE DEPARTMENT WILL GIVE A FINAL UPDATE ON THE REST OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS BUT WE DO KN
Advertisement Sacramento PD: Some DOJ use-of-force recommendations implemented California DOJ outlined 66 ways for Sacramento police to improve use-of-force policies Share Shares Copy Link Copy
The message from the California Department of Justice was clear: The Sacramento Police Department needs to improve its use-of-force policy, training and investigations.The DOJ listed dozens of recommendations for Sacramento police so the department could improve its use-of-force policies. Chief Daniel Hahn requested the review in March 2018 after two officers shot and killed Stephon Clark.On Monday night, the Sacramento Community Police Review Commission and the public got a status report on the DOJ recommendations.“Every single one of the recommendations in here, all 66 that would refer to the use-of-force policy, have definitely been taken up and considered for implementation into this policy in one form or another,” Capt. Dennis Joy told the commission. He explained nearly two dozen of the recommendations have already been implemented, including having internal affairs investigate every officer involved in a shooting and creating a new foot pursuit policy. Others are in progress or under review.Seventeen of the policy recommendations will be addressed in the new use-of-force policy revision, which is expected to be released soon.“It’s currently under review by the police union, professional standards unit and the office of the chief,” Joy said. The commission questioned how the public will know if the department chooses to not accept certain DOJ recommendations.“I don't believe we offered an explanation by item," Joy said. "In order to do that with 66 items, it would be a rather large undertaking."That's something of concern for people like Russell Johnigan, Jr. who attended the meeting.“There was some lack of clarity, I felt, like on the process and on the police department's ability to pick or to completely deny some of the recommendations that were laid out,” Johnigan said. Overall, he was satisfied with the status update, adding “It’s very clear to me that at the end of the day, law enforcement is going to approve or deny what they feel is most comfortable to them.”Commissioner Mario Guerrero wanted to know if Sacramento's new policy is in line with California's the recently signed use-of-force law, AB 392.“Does that update include the changes in law that's coming with AB 392?” he asked. “Much of the wording we are using in that comes straight out of AB 392,” Joy replied.“I will be interested to see what it looks like and how its defined and also the implications for the training,” Guerrero said.It's not clear when the department will give a final update on the remaining recommendations. However, the state's review of the department will continue for months to come. The review is being done in two phases. The 66 recommendations fall under Phase One, where the DOJ reviewed use-of-force related policies, training and practices. The Phase Two review, which is currently underway, will cover recruitment, hiring and prevention of bias. It's expected to be completed by the end of the year. | {
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CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Credit-card debt is on the brink of imploding and will be the next storm to hit the fragile finance industry, an investment research firm predicted this week.
According to Innovest StrategicValue Advisors, banks will charge off $18.6 billion in delinquent credit-card accounts in the first quarter of 2009 and $96 billion in all of 2009, more than double the research firm's forecast for all of this year.
Innovest projects that amount would be high enough to damage some of the biggest card issuers.
Credit-card charge-offs are "defying gravity" when compared with the problems in the mortgage market, according to Gregory Larkin, senior banking analyst for Innovest. But that will change as they catch up with mortgage charge-offs, which have spiked eightfold since the third quarter of 2007.
"If history is any indicator, there should be an equivalent surge of credit-card charge-offs very soon," he said, though he concedes that an eightfold increase would be very aggressive.
Comparatively, charge-offs reached $4.2 billion in the first quarter of this year and $3.2 billion in the same period a year before, according to the Federal Reserve, which only reports non-securitized debt. Innovest's projections include all credit-card debt, which the firm believes is double what the Federal Reserve reports. For all of 2007, charge-offs tallied $26.6 billion, according to Innovest's calculations, and the firm estimates they will reach $41.5 billion at the end of this year.
The jump in credit-card charge-offs is linked in part to the credit crisis now in play. As banks have tightened lending standards, they have mostly done away with the once-popular roll-over options -- usually at 0% introductory rates -- that allowed borrowers with delinquent accounts to get new cards elsewhere. Larkin believes all that bad credit is going to surface quickly and could have a similar impact as the mortgage crisis has had on banking.
A matter of scale
But credit-industry analysts shake those prognostications off, noting that the number of dollars involved in credit cards loans versus mortgages is substantially lower.
"Defaults on $2,000 or $5,000 in credit-card debt are entirely different than someone defaulting on a $500,000 mortgage," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst for Bankrate.com.
"I'm skeptical that the magnitude of credit quality is going to be as severe as some say," he added.
The average credit-card debt is $2,200, according to the Federal Reserve. On a revolving basis, there was roughly $970 billion owed on credit cards at the end of July. However, because many people use credit cards for the rewards programs and pay off their debt each month, it's unclear how much of that total is actually outstanding.
What's more, as delinquencies rise -- and they will because of the weakness of the economy -- credit-card issuers will take steps to stem the tide. That will include cutting credit off from problem borrowers and tightening restrictions on new cards.
"Banks already are starting to minimize their risk and drop their credit limits that they extend to people and especially those at a higher risk," said Bill Hardekopf, a partner at LowCards.com. Read more.
American Express, for example, upped its loan-loss reserves to $2.6 billion in the second quarter compared with $1.4 billion in the year-ago period.
In the second quarter, Capital One's provisions for loan losses nearly doubled to $1.1 billion compared with $535 million in the second quarter last year.
"There's no doubt there's going to be pain in the credit-card markets," said Justin McHenry, research director with IndexCreditCards.com. "But I don't see anything to the magnitude of what we've seen in the mortgage market.
"This is a different financial animal in terms of how much is being loaned out," he added. "And credit-card companies can take that credit and cut it in half. That's a tool that they have."
Larkin admits that Innovest's projections run against the financial tide: "I think they're wrong," he said.
Companies could take a hit
Laura Nishikawa, Innovest's consumer finance analyst, said the credit-card crisis will hit earnings, in particular at companies that glean high percentages of net revenue from their U.S. credit-card revenues.
"Companies that have pursued aggressive portfolio growth and higher yields at the cost of prudent risk management will struggle to manage rising loan losses, which will definitely cut into earnings or even worse," she said.
Discover Cards DFS, -1.45% , for example, is a pure-play credit-card company with 97.8% of net revenue from credit cards. Capital One COF, -1.23% gets 62% of its net revenue from credit cards while American Express' AXP, -1.08% clocks in with 24.5%. J.P Morgan Chase's JPM, -0.84% garners 20.5% of net revenues from credit cards.
Nishikawa is also worried about companies that target lower-income consumers and use delinquencies and late payments as a means of making money.
"Delinquent borrowers become cash-flow generators," she said. "At the extreme end, the goal becomes, 'How do we get borrowers into delinquent status as soon as possible, in order to maximize returns?'"
J.P. Morgan and Amex are what Nishikawa considers best of class, while Capital One has an unsustainable business model that's based on penalty pricing -- high fees for missed payments, shooting interest rates for surpassing limits -- and that she thinks has a high exposure to subprime credit-card holders and low payment rates.
"When the economy turns bad, this strategy clearly cannot be sustained," she said.
"While a hit to topple credit cards may not topple the bank completely, it will cut into core earnings," she added. | {
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Police in Canada have launched an investigation after it emerged that one of North America’s most influential white supremacists lives in Montreal and has been organising a small network of neo-Nazis in the city since 2016.
An investigation by the Montreal Gazette unmasked the neo-Nazi propagandist who goes by the pseudonym Zeiger and is best known for his writings on the extreme rightwing news site Daily Stormer. In its report earlier this month, the paper identified him as a local IT consultant in his 30s named Gabriel Sohier Chaput.
The revelation made waves across North America, and cast a spotlight on the more than 100 hate groups and dozens of far-right figures in Canada.
“Zeiger is one of the far right’s most credible, most competent and one of the most influential radio personalities and propagandists out there,” said Ryan Lenz of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups throughout North America. “He’s proven to be a very effective presence and personality amid this rise in the alt-right.”
After emerging as a key figure in the movement about four years ago, Zeiger attended last year’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a small group from Quebec.
Between August 2016 and January 2018, he also coordinated meetings in Montreal with 10 to 15 people who self-identified as alt-right, Nazis and white supremacists, among other labels. Only men were allowed to attend the group’s official meetings.
The Gazette’s investigation built on research done by anti-fascist activists who had combed through Zeiger’s online profiles and high school yearbooks to ascertain his identity. Key information also came from Zeiger himself, after he mentioned in a podcast that he had attended high school in Montreal’s Outremont borough.
The paper repeatedly reached out to Sohier Chaput and Zeiger for comment, but received no response.
After Zeiger’s identity was revealed, police in Montreal said their hate crimes unit was looking into the information. Officials with the force declined to offer more details when asked if the unit was investigating any particular individual or if charges were being considered.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said that since being unmasked, Zeiger has gone quiet. “We know that he seems to be in hiding,” said Lenz.
He said he wasn’t surprised to hear that one of the alt-right’s most influential figures had been found north of the border. “To see it pop up in Canada is disheartening and sad, but it is just another chapter in this long story of these ideas slowly sweeping the planet,” he said. “These countries are just a piece in a global puzzle of extremism.”
The revelation comes as academics, journalists and researchers join forces to launch Canada’s first organisation dedicated to monitoring and exposing far-right groups.
“I think there is this sense of Canadian exceptionalism that, for example, we’re not as bad or as racist as our neighbours down south,” said Evan Balgord, the executive director of the recently launched Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
The organisation currently has between 100 to 130 hate groups on their radar in Canada, compared with about 954 organisations that are being tracked in the US. “We have a tenth of the population, we also have a tenth of the number of hate groups,” said Balgord. “So proportionally it’s a similar-size problem.” | {
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Source: Xinhua| 2017-09-13 06:23:08|Editor: yan
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GAZA, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Clothing companies in the Gaza Strip exported on Tuesday the second shipment of clothing to the Israeli markets, following another one on Aug. 29 which marked the first such export since 2007.
Bashir al-Bawab, chairman of Unipal 2000 Company in Gaza, said his company exported 6,000 pieces of clothing from Gaza to Israel through Kerem Shalom commercial crossing point on the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel.
"It is the second truck loaded with clothing exported from the Gaza Strip to Israel in two weeks, the first time that we export clothing made in Gaza sewing factories and Gaza tailors since 2007," said al-Bawab.
In 2007, Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, and considered the enclave a hostile entity, right after Hamas Islamic movement had forcibly seized control of the coastal enclave.
Before 2007, Israeli clothing merchants and businessmen used to send raw material to Gaza cloth-making factories and tailors, which sent various kinds of products back to the Israeli markets.
Al-Bawab told reporters that his company has agreed to export a shipment of clothing every week from Gaza to Israel, adding that "this would help decrease the high rates of unemployment in the Gaza Strip."
He said the first shipment, which was made late last month, included 3,500 pieces of various kinds of clothing, adding that "this process will go on and we hope that it will help improve the economy in Gaza."
Al-Bawab pointed out that the Israeli side had promised to continue the transfer of subsequent shipments of clothing produced in Gaza to the Israeli market directly.
He wished that the following shipments will be marketed through consignments instead of clearing bills.
For his part, Tayseer al-Oustaz, head of the Federation of the Clothing and Textile Industry, described the entry of the first shipment of clothing into the Israeli market positive.
"Since 2007, no shipment of clothing has been transferred directly to the Israeli market. It was shipped to the West Bank market and taken to the Israeli market. Therefore, we demanded that the Israeli side facilitate the transfer of these products through consignments," said al-Oustaz.
He pointed out that about 25 factories are ready to sell their products to the Israeli market with an expected shipment rate of once a week. | {
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GUILTY: Bill Talbott convicted of murder after family tree unearths his decades-old secret Jul 01, 2019 at 12:00 am
This is the first time a suspect was nabbed using the combined powers of DNA and old-school genealogy.
Bill Talbott, a 56-year-old Washington state man, has been found guilty of murdering Tanya van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook. A jury in Everett, Washington, returned a verdict after two days deliberating over a cold case murder from 1987. Tanya, 18, and Jay, 20, were Canadians on an overnight trip to Seattle to pick up furnace parts for Jay’s dad’s company. [Read our in-depth story on this case.] They were found brutally murdered, their bodies dumped in Snohomish and Skagit counties.
This was not just a sordid murder case. This was the first time a suspect found using genetic genealogy has been put on trial. Genetic genealogy pointed investigators to the Golden State Killer in California – charged with 13 murders and countless rapes — which got law enforcement in Washington state considering what that could mean for cold cases here. Genetic genealogy involves forensic researchers uploading a DNA profile to a public database of DNA profiles, finding a relative, and then perusing that relative's family tree to identify a suspect.
After the Golden State Killer was nabbed last year, Washington state law officials saw an opportunity. They uploaded the DNA profile of the mysterious man, dubbed “Individual A,” into a genetic database. Two second cousins popped up, a genetic genealogist perused his family tree, and within days, Bill Talbott of Monroe, Washington, became suspect number 1. A DNA test confirmed that Talbott’s semen was found in Tanya and at the scene of the crime. Talbott could appeal this conviction, but genetic genealogy would not be allowed to be part of this appeal, as the defense did not challenge the veracity of the method used to identify Talbott. Rather, the defense argued that the semen proves only that Talbott and Tanya had sex. The defense also noted that Tanya’s fluid was in the sample – evidence of arousal. | {
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8:55 AM ET Tue, 14 Sept 2010
There's a whole new universe of new places to trade and new players doing the trading. How has it changed, and why? What does it mean for you? » Read More | {
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Drug Crimes Lawyer in Oakland County
Passionate About Protecting Your Rights & Future
One mistake can have a huge impact on your future. This is true both for those who regret being involved in drugs and for those who are mistakenly or too harshly charged with drug crimes.
At Rights First Law, we don’t think one charge should define the rest of your life. Our Birmingham drug crimes lawyer takes an individual approach to your case and aggressively protects your rights in court. We won’t let you be pushed into an unfair conviction.
Under Michigan Law, you cannot be prosecuted for drug charges if:
The charge results from your seeking medical treatment for an overdose
You came to possess a controlled substance while helping someone else get medical treatment for an overdose
You possess a controlled substance due to a valid prescription order from a medical practitioner
About Controlled Substances
While medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, the program is regulated by the state, and facilities providing medical marijuana must comply with licensing procedures, which include approval by their municipality. Marijuana obtained outside this system is considered a controlled substance, and possessors are subject to felony charges.
Other controlled substances include various pharmaceuticals, opium derivatives, hallucinogens, and their derivatives or synthetics.
What Rights First Law Can Do for You
We offer clients a free consultation so you can learn about your next steps when charged with a drug-related crime. During your consultation, we will listen to you, explain the court process, and discuss how to best approach your case.
Our extensive experience allows us to compassionately represent our clients as well as understand how to effectively defend cases in state and federal court. At Rights First Law, it all comes back to helping you. | {
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Image copyright Prof Mario Palma/Sao Paulo State University
The venom of a wasp native to Brazil could be used as a weapon to fight cancer, scientists believe.
A toxin in the sting kills cancer cells without harming normal cells, lab studies suggest.
The University of Brazil team say the experimental therapy latches to tumour cells and makes them leak vital molecules.
The work is at an early stage and more studies are needed to check the method will work safely in humans.
Polybia paulista is an aggressive social wasp endemic in south-east Brazil.
Though its sting is largely seen as unwelcome, scientists increasingly believe it could be put to good use.
It contains an important toxin called MP1 which the insect uses to attack prey or defend itself.
And recent studies in mice suggest it may target and destroy cancer cells.
Prof Joao Ruggiero Netto and colleagues set out to discover how, by putting it under the microscope.
They found MP1 interacts with fat molecules that are abnormally distributed on the surface of cancer cells, creating gaping holes that allow molecules crucial for cell function to leak out.
In healthy cells, the same molecules are hidden on the inside. This means healthy tissue should avoid MP1's attack, the scientists say in Biophysical Journal.
Co-researcher Dr Paul Beales, from the University of Leeds, said cancer therapies that attacked the lipid composition of the cell membrane would be an entirely new class of anti-cancer drugs.
"This could be useful in developing new combination therapies, where multiple drugs are used simultaneously to treat a cancer by attacking different parts of the cancer cells at the same time," he said.
Dr Aine McCarthy, science information officer for Cancer Research UK said: "This early stage research increases our understanding of how the venom of the Brazilian wasp can kill cancer cells in the laboratory.
"But while these findings are exciting, much more work is needed in the lab and in clinical trials before we will know if drugs based on this research could benefit cancer patients." | {
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Sull’insulto Oggi il turpiloquio è di uso comune. I giovani per scandalizzare gli adulti potrebbero recuperare epiteti come allocco, babbiasso, piciu o pisquano
Di una conferenza che dovevo fare a Camogli “la Repubblica” ha pubblicato un estratto (dicendo che non si trattava del testo completo); ma il mondo è pieno di gente che legge le prime righe di un testo e ne fa un’analisi critica senza tener conto del resto. Quando doveva uscire il mio “Pendolo di Foucault”, “l’Espresso” ne aveva pubblicato l’inizio, dove un io narrante esprime il suo turbamento (ai limiti della follia) di fronte al pendolo che dà nome al romanzo. Subito un critico ha scritto sulle mie follie mistico-occultistiche, senza sapere che nel resto del romanzo si sarebbe fatta giustizia di quelle fantasticherie, che lo stesso io narrante poi ripudia.
Nel caso della conferenza di Camogli il titolo era “Lei, tu, la memoria e l’insulto”. Nel brano di “Repubblica” non si arrivava all’insulto, ma (avendo visto la parola nel titolo) c’è chi si è subito irritato perché io avrei considerato il “tu” come un insulto. Sarebbe bastato cercare on line il testo completo, ma per un giornale si deve scrivere in fretta, come Jack Lemmon in “Prima Pagina”.
Che cosa dicevo sull’insulto? Siccome sia l’uso del tu e altri fenomeni di linguaggio mi sembravano dipendere dal fatto che le giovani generazioni hanno una insufficiente memoria del passato, mi chiedevo come avrebbero potuto reagire alla tendenza degli adulti, di usare parolacce che una volta non avrebbero mai pronunciato.
Qualche anno fa in parlamento, quando Furio Colombo stava denunciando alcuni episodi di razzismo, il deputato leghista Brigandì, come motivata contro-argomentazione, ha urlato “Faccia da culo!”, Bossi parlava di Berluskaz, Grillo ha detto dei suoi avversari «padri puttanieri che chiagnono e fottono», il senatore Nino Strano ha urlato contro il collega Salvatore Cusumano: «Sei una merda, sei un cesso corroso, sei un frocio mafioso, sei una checca squallida», Francesco Storace ha gridato a Mauro Paissan «Quella checca mi ha graffiato con le sue unghie laccate di rosso, io non l’ho toccato. Vi sfido a trovare le mie impronte sul suo culo…», Massimo De Rosa, parlamentare cinquestelle, ha urlato a un gruppo di deputate Pd «Siete qui solo perché brave a fare i pompini». Berlusconi avrebbe definito Angela Merkel «una culona inchiavabile».
Una volta gli adulti evitavano le parolacce, se non all’osteria o in caserma, mentre i giovani le usavano per provocazione, e le scrivevano sulle pareti dei gabinetti della scuola. Oggi le nonne dicono “cazzo” invece di perdirindindina; i giovani potrebbero distinguersi dicendo perdirindindina, ma non sanno più che questa esclamazione esistesse. Che tipo di parolacce può usare oggi un giovane, per sentirsi appunto in polemica coi suoi genitori, quando i suoi genitori e i suoi nonni non gli lasciano più alcuno spazio per una inventiva scurrilità?
Avevo quindi ripreso una vecchia “Bustina”, consigliando ai giovani parole desuete ma efficaci come pistola dell’ostrega, papaciugo, imbolsito, crapapelata, piffero, marocchino, morlacco, badalucco, pischimpirola, tarabuso, balengu, piciu, cacasotto, malmostoso, lavativo, magnasapone, tonto, allocco, magnavongole, zanzibar, bidone, ciocco, bartolomeo, mona, tapiro, belinone, tamarro, burino, lucco, lingera, bernardo, lasagnone, vincenzo, babbiasso, saletabacchi, fregnone, lenza, scricchianespuli, cagone, giocondo, asinone, impiastro, ciarlatano, cecè, salame, testadirapa, farfallone, tanghero, cazzone, magnafregna, pulcinella, zozzone, scassapalle, mangiapaneatradimento, gonzo, bestione, buzzicone, cacacammisa, sfrappolato, puzzone, coatto, gandùla, brighella, pituano, pisquano, carampana, farlocco, flanellone, flippato, fricchettone, gabolista, gaglioffo, bietolone, e tanti altri termini bellissimi che lo spazio mi obbliga a tagliare.
Speriamo bene, per la riscoperta dell’idioma gentile.
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A man has died following a stabbing in a CBD park.
Emergency services were called to Enterprise Park on Flinders Street near Kings Way about 5.30am on Sunday.
The man was taken to hospital but later died.
A police spokeswoman said the man was believed to be homeless.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers on (1800) 333 000 or go to www.crimestoppers.com.au. | {
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The chairman of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) has brought a criminal complaint against the Austrian government for its handling of the refugee crisis. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Heinz-Christian Strache said that his party believes that the government’s approach to dealing with the mass movement of people has been an example of “gross negligence”. In their opinion, the government has “broken the law every day”.
Strache told Austrian television that he would file a criminal complaint against the Chancellor Werner Faymann and the interior and defence ministers Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Gerald Klug, as well as representatives of Austrian railways (ÖBB).
The charge against the federal railways could be down to the fact that its CEO, Christian Kern, has regularly been touted as a successor to Faymann.
>>Read: German Minister of Justice compared to Goebbels by PEGIDA leader
Strache lashed out at supposed unregulated access, missed security checks, erroneous refugee statistics and the tightening of an asylum law that is merely “a placebo to mask failure”. Indeed, the list of allegations also accuses the state of acting as a “trafficking organisation”. Additionally, it forwards the opinion that many of the people making their way along the Western Balkans route are not actually “refugees”.
The EU also comes in for strong criticism, with the message to Brussels saying that it is the Union that has caused the problems. The Hungarian government’s refugee policy, however, is held up as an exemplary model to dealing with the crisis. Victor Orbán’s approach to dealing with the influx of people is the right-wing populist party’s preferred method, including the use of fences and border-patrols.
>>Read: Austria shelves border fence
Moreover, Strache wants to establish so-called “extraterritorial reception zones” on the border. Here, new arrivals would be registered, their fingerprints recorded and those unable to provide identification or prove that they are a genuine refugee would be deported immediately. How this would actually function and where the money for such a measure would come from, was left open by the FPÖ chairman.
The interior ministry has accepted the fact that it is the prime target for political attacks and has resigned itself to its role as a “lightning rod”. Police experts will soon submit a plan for organising the logistics of the border crossings in the Austrian regions of Styria and Carinthia, in order to best optimise the processing of refugees. | {
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David works on the Magic community team as a content specialist. He spends his days writing about Magic Online and trying to play too many colors at once in Limited.
What Is the Magic Online Weekly Announcements Blog? Every Tuesday, we round up all of the biggest Magic Online news and post it right here in the Weekly Announcements Blog. Check in every Tuesday for all of the latest news!
Magic Online Player of the Year Standings Available Once Again We're tracking Player of the Year standings once again on MTGO.com! Both Limited and Constructed Player of the Year standings are updated every Thursday.
Upcoming R&D Challenge Event on Friday, September 12 Think you have the Magic chops to beat the folks in R&D at their own game? Good, I like the cut of your jib. You're in. The time? High noon (Pacific). The place? The Scheduled events room. The format? Vintage Constructed. The prize? Magic 2015 booster packs. Except for R&D. They don't get the booster packs. Check out the 2014 Community Cup: Companion Events article for all the details! R&D's Finest Allison Medwin
Ian Duke
Ben Hayes
Bryan Hawley
Shawn Main
Ethan Fleischer
Adam Prosak
Sam Stoddard
Jackie Lee
Check in Wednesday for Part Two of the Community Team Player Profiles We're posting the second half of the Community Team profiles on Wednesday, September 3, so don't forget to check in to learn more about the teams competing in the 2014 Community Cup. Check out the directory for all of the profiles released so far!
Magic Online Cube Refresh and Event Details In Monday’s article, R&D’s Adam Prosak walked players through the extensive process behind re-working the Magic Online Cube. With over fifty cards that have been updated, be sure to check out the full card list, as well as the full change list, included within Adam's article. Now that the Cube is refreshed, it’s time to break it in! We’ll be running two weeks of Cube Events, alongside flashback drafts, beginning on Wednesday, September 17, running until Wednesday, October 1. Refer to the tables below for the full event details! Magic Online Cube Swiss Draft START TIMES Wednesday, September 17, after downtime until Wednesday, October 1 downtime
All times are Pacific (for UTC, add 7 hours) LOCATION Limited Queues ENTRY OPTIONS Option 1 Option 2 10 Event Tickets 16 Phantom Points PRODUCT Magic Online will provide 3 Phantom Cube booster packs SIZE 8 players PLAY STYLE Swiss FORMAT Draft DURATION 10 minutes deck-building time. Three rounds, each round up to 50 minutes. PRIZES Match Wins Prizes QPs 3 Wins 24 Phantom Points 1 2 Wins 16 Phantom Points 0 1 Win 6 Phantom Points 0 0 Wins 2 Phantom Points 0 Magic Online Cube Single Elimination Draft START TIMES Wednesday, September 17, after downtime until Wednesday, October 1 downtime
All times are Pacific (for UTC, add 7 hours) LOCATION Limited Queues ENTRY OPTIONS Option 1 Option 2 10 Event Tickets 16 Phantom Points PRODUCT 3 Magic Online Cube booster packs SIZE 8 players PLAY STYLE Single Elimination FORMAT Draft DURATION 10 minutes deck-building time. Three rounds, each round up to 50 minutes. PRIZES Date Prizes 9/17-9/24 Place Prizes QPs 1st 1 Tempest booster pack, 1 Stronghold booster pack, 1 Exodus booster pack, and 18 Phantom Points 1 2nd 1 Tempest booster pack, 1 Stronghold booster pack, 1 Exodus booster pack, and 12 Phantom Points 0 3rd-4th 7 Phantom Points 0 5th-8th 3 Phantom Points 0 9/24-10/1 Place Prizes QPs 1st 3 Innistrad booster packs and 18 Phantom Points 1 2nd 3 Innistrad booster packs and 12 Phantom Points 0 3rd-4th 7 Phantom Points 0 5th-8th 3 Phantom Points 0 Single Elimination Flashback Draft START TIMES Wednesday, September 17, after downtime until Wednesday, October 1 downtime
All times are Pacific (for UTC, add 7 hours) LOCATION Limited Queues ENTRY OPTIONS Option 1 Option 2 2 Event Tickets, plus Product 14 Event Tickets PRODUCT Date Product 9/17-9/24 1 Tempest, 1 Stronghold, and 1 Exodus booster pack 9/24-10/1 3 Innistrad booster packs SIZE 8 players PLAY STYLE Single Elimination FORMAT Draft DURATION 10 minutes deck-building time. Three rounds, each round up to 50 minutes. PRIZES Date Prizes 9/17-9/24 Place Prizes QPs 1st 3 Tempest booster packs, 2 Stronghold booster packs, and 3 Exodus booster pack 1 2nd 1 Tempest booster pack, 2 Stronghold booster packs, and 1 Exodus booster pack 0 9/24-10/1 Place Prizes QPs 1st 8 Innistrad booster packs 1 2nd 4 Innistrad booster packs 0 Swiss Flashback Draft START TIMES Wednesday, September 17, after downtime until Wednesday, October 1 downtime
All times are Pacific (for UTC, add 7 hours) LOCATION Limited Queues ENTRY OPTIONS Option 1 Option 2 2 Event Tickets, plus Product 14 Event Tickets PRODUCT Date Product 9/17-9/24 1 Tempest, 1 Stronghold, and 1 Exodus booster pack 9/24-10/1 3 Innistrad booster packs SIZE 8 players PLAY STYLE Swiss FORMAT Draft DURATION 10 minutes deck-building time. Three rounds, each round up to 50 minutes. PRIZES Date Prizes 9/17-9/24 Match Wins Prizes QPs 3 Wins 1 Tempest, 1 Stronghold, and 1 Exodus booster pack 1 2 Wins 1 Tempest and 1 Exodus booster pack 0 1 Win 1 Stronghold booster pack 0 9/24-10/1 Match Wins Prizes QPs 3 Wins 3 Innistrad booster packs 1 2 Wins 2 Innistrad booster packs 0 1 Win 1 Innistrad booster pack 0 | {
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Algumas organizações da sociedade civil reclamaram da suposta ligeireza com que a Câmara dos Deputados pautou e votou o PL 2.016/2015, que tipifica o crime de terrorismo e seu financiamento e dá outras providências.
Na verdade, o tema vem sendo discutido no Congresso Nacional há alguns anos, em várias instâncias. O regime de urgência atribuído à tramitação do PL 2.016/2015 não é fruto de agenda totalitária ou conservadora. A urgência foi solicitada pela presidência da República, que apresentou o projeto, pois o País está em mora internacional e o governo a reconhece. Somos o único país do G-20 a não ter legislação antiterror.
O projeto 2.016/2015 foi aprovado em 13/ago na Câmara dos Deputados e agora vai ao Senado. Basicamente, o novo diploma:
a) conceitua terrorismo e atos de terrorismo (art. 2º)
b) tipifica o crime de terrorismo, com penas de 12 a 30 anos (art. 2º, §1º)
c) cria causa de excludente de ilicitude relacionado ao direito de protesto e reivindicação (art. 2º, §2º)
d) tipifica o crime de associação em organização terrorista, inclusive o recrutamento de terroristas, com penas de 5 a 8 anos reclusão e multa (art. 3º)
e) tipifica o crime de favorecimento pessoal (art. 3º, §1º)
f) tipifica o crime de apologia a ato terrorista ou a seu autor (art. 4º) e de incitação ao terrorismo (§1º), inclusive por meio da Internet (§2º)
g) pune atos preparatórios de conduta terrorista (art. 5º)
h) tipifica o recrutamento de terroristas e o treinamento de terroristas (art. 5º, §1º)
i) tipifica o crime de financiamento do terrorismo (art. 6º)
j) institui causas especiais de aumento de pena (arts. 7º e 8º)
k) prevê a competência federal (art. 11).
l) prevê medidas cautelares sobre ativos vinculados a atividades terroristas e a possibilidade de alienação antecipada de bens bloqueados e de nomeação de administrador provisório (arts. 12 a 14)
m) admite a cooperação internacional com base em tratados e em promessa de reciprocidade e estipula regra geral de partilha de ativos (asset sharing) (art. 15).
n) determina a aplicação das regras da Lei 12.850/2013 para a investigação e processo de crimes previstos na Lei Antiterror e altera o conceito de organização terrorista daquela lei (art. 16).
o) determina a aplicação da Lei 8.072/1990 aos crimes previstos na Lei Antiterror (art. 17)
p) altera a Lei 7.960/1989 para admitir a prisão temporária nos crimes da Lei Antiterror (art. 18).
Não foi feliz a Câmara dos Deputados na definição do crime de terrorismo. Há consenso quanto à dificuldade de conceituar o ato terrorista. A tentativa feita pelo artigo 1º, §4º, da Lei 10.744/2013 não foi bem sucedida: “Entende-se por ato terrorista qualquer ato de uma ou mais pessoas, sendo ou não agentes de um poder soberano, com fins políticos ou terroristas, seja a perda ou dano“.
Por um lado, o tipo não abrange com clareza todas as condutas potencialmente terroristas previstas no conjunto de tratados firmados pelo Brasil, que dizem respeito a ações, individuais ou não, que visam atacar agentes diplomáticos e dignitários estrangeiros, a segurança da aviação civil, a segurança da navegação marítima, realizar atentados nucleares ou com bombas ou tomar reféns.
Por outro lado, a lei emprega conceitos jurídicos indeterminados, como as expressões “terror social” e “terror generalizado”, cuja dubiedade pode ampliar demasiadamente a possibilidade de adequação típica. Nesta mesma linha, o projeto deixa de exigir a coação sobre o Estado ou organização nacional, que, em alguns contextos, contribuiria para maior precisão do tipo penal.
Há ainda uma terrível cacofonia na expressão “por razões de xenofobia, discriminação ou preconceito de raça, cor, etnia e religião“. Neste mesmo trecho, a falta da motivação política ou ideológica enfraquece o tipo penal e deixa lacunas relevantes que podem levar à atipicidade de condutas claramente terroristas. A solução seria ampliar a enunciação desses motivos, ou suprimi-los todos, com o que o texto ganharia maior semelhança com a estrutura do delito básico de terrorismo, previsto no art. 421-1 do Code pénal francês.
Além disso, atentados à liberdade individual e contra a liberdade sexual não aparecem como atos de terrorismo, o que mantém atípica a tomada de reféns e não submete ao alcance da lei estupros coletivos quando tenham cunho terrorista, já que o inciso V do art. 2º, §1º só se refere a atentados à vida e à integridade física de pessoa.
Eis a redação aprovada pela Câmara dos Deputados, ainda sujeita a revisão do Senado:
Art. 2º O terrorismo consiste na prática por um ou mais indivíduos dos atos previstos neste artigo, por razões de xenofobia, discriminação ou preconceito de raça, cor, etnia e religião, quando cometidos com a finalidade de provocar terror social ou generalizado, expondo a perigo pessoa, patrimônio, a paz pública ou a incolumidade pública. § 1º São atos de terrorismo: I – usar ou ameaçar usar, transportar, guardar, portar ou trazer consigo explosivos, gases tóxicos, venenos, conteúdos biológicos, químicos, nucleares ou outros meios capazes de causar danos ou promover destruição em massa; II – incendiar, depredar, saquear, destruir ou explodir meios de transporte ou qualquer bem público ou privado; III – interferir, sabotar ou danificar sistemas de informática ou bancos de dados; IV – sabotar o funcionamento ou apoderar-se, com violência, grave ameaça a pessoa ou servindo-se de mecanismos cibernéticos, do controle total ou parcial, ainda que de modo temporário, de meio de comunicação ou de transporte, de portos, aeroportos, estações ferroviárias ou rodoviárias, hospitais, casas de saúde, escolas, estádios esportivos, instalações públicas ou locais onde funcionem serviços públicos essenciais, instalações de geração ou transmissão de energia, instalações militares, instalações de exploração, refino e processamento de petróleo e gás e instituições bancárias e sua rede de atendimento; V – atentar contra a vida ou a integridade física de pessoa: Pena – reclusão, de doze a trinta anos, além das sanções correspondentes à ameaça ou à violência. § 2º O disposto neste artigo não se aplica à conduta individual ou coletiva de pessoas em manifestações políticas, movimentos sociais, sindicais, religiosos, de classe ou de categoria profissional, direcionados por propósitos sociais ou reivindicatórios, visando a contestar, criticar, protestar ou apoiar, com o objetivo de defender direitos, garantias e liberdades constitucionais, sem prejuízo da tipificação penal contida em lei.
A segunda falha substancial está no artigo 11 do projeto. Segundo o texto, o julgamento da ação penal será de competência da Justiça Federal (art. 11), sujeitos à investigação da Polícia Federal, com a coordenação estratégica e operacional do Gabinete de Segurança Institucional da Presidência da República.
Art. 11. Para todos os efeitos legais, considera-se que os crimes previstos nesta Lei são praticados contra o interesse da União, cabendo à Polícia Federal a investigação criminal, em sede de inquérito policial, e à Justiça Federal o seu processamento e julgamento, nos termos do inciso IV do art. 109 da Constituição Federal. Parágrafo único. Fica a cargo do Gabinete de Segurança Institucional da Presidência da República a coordenação dos trabalhos de prevenção e combate aos crimes previstos nesta Lei, enquanto não regulamentada pelo Poder Executivo.
A redação é excessiva. Bastaria dizer no caput do art. 11 que “O julgamento dos crimes previstos nesta lei é de competência da Justiça Federal“. Ponto. Ademais, ao afirmar que cabe “à Polícia Federal a investigação criminal, em sede de inquérito policial” (sic), o legislador ignorou a decisão do STF, proferida em maio de 2015, no RE 593.727/MG, quando foi reconhecido o poder investigatório do Ministério Público, para a realização de apurações criminais.
Segundo o projeto, as técnicas especiais de investigação (ou meios especiais de obtenção de provas) previstas na Lei 12.850/2013 podem ser utilizadas para a investigação de atos terroristas e organizações terroristas. Isto significa que a Polícia e o Ministério Público Federal poderão valer-se de infiltração policial, escuta ambiental, interceptação telefônica, ações controladas, acordos de colaboração premiada e requisição de dados para investigar esses crimes.
Para ressalvar protestos legítimos de cidadãos e movimentos sociais, há uma cláusula genérica de exclusão do crime no §2º do art. 2º do projeto:
§2º O disposto neste artigo não se aplica à conduta individual ou coletiva de pessoas em manifestações políticas, movimentos sociais, sindicais, religiosos, de classe ou de categoria profissional, direcionados por propósitos sociais ou reivindicatórios, visando a contestar, criticar, protestar ou apoiar, com o objetivo de defender direitos, garantias e liberdades constitucionais, sem prejuízo da tipificação penal contida em lei”.
Na Argentina (O terror argentino), o parágrafo do artigo 41-quinquies do CP (inserido em 2011) veda a incidência da causa especial de aumento em razão de terrorismo quando a conduta disser respeito ao exercício de direitos humanos e/ou sociais ou de qualquer outro direito constitucional. Tal regra destina-se a proteger movimentos sociais contra a utilização do direito penal para reprimi-los, um justo receio que também ecoa nas discussões brasileiras sobre este tema:
ARTICULO 41 quinquies — Cuando alguno de los delitos previstos en este Código hubiere sido cometido con la finalidad de aterrorizar a la población u obligar a las autoridades públicas nacionales o gobiernos extranjeros o agentes de una organización internacional a realizar un acto o abstenerse de hacerlo, la escala se incrementará en el doble del mínimo y el máximo. Las agravantes previstas en este artículo no se aplicarán cuando el o los hechos de que se traten tuvieren lugar en ocasión del ejercicio de derechos humanos y/o sociales o de cualquier otro derecho constitucional.
Solução semelhante à adotada por Argentina e Brasil foi rechaçada no México, com o argumento de que, independentemente do que disser a lei, a Constituição protege a liberdade de manifestação do pensamento e os protestos e reivindicações sociais.
Por que esse projeto tramita em regime de urgência? Entre outros motivos, a tramitação acelerada deriva da possibilidade de o Brasil, após sucessivas advertências internacionais, no mecanismo de peer review, vir a ser inserido em lista suja em outubro de 2015, durante a sessão plenária do Grupo de Ação Financeira Internacional (GAFI). O GAFI ou Finantial Action Task Force (FATF) é um organismo intergovernamental ligado ao G-8, que reúne várias democracias plurais que já criminalizaram o terrorismo e seu financiamento.
Um comitê de alto nível do GAFI esteve em Brasília em abril de 2015 e visitou o Ministro da Justiça, o Ministro da Fazenda, a Câmara dos Deputados, o Senado e o Procurador-Geral da República, para solicitar o cumprimento pelo Brasil da Recomendação do GAFI sobre a criminalização do terrorismo e seu financiamento. Desde 2012, com a nova edição de suas 40 Recomendações, o GAFI se ocupa da promoção de medidas de prevenção e repressão à lavagem de dinheiro, ao terrorismo e seu financiamento e à proliferação de armas de destruição em massa.
A Recomendação n. 5 diz:
Crime de financiamento do terrorismo. Os países deveriam criminalizar o financiamento do terrorismo com base na Convenção Internacional para a Supressão do Financiamento do Terrorismo, e criminalizar não apenas o financiamento de atos terroristas, mas também o financiamento de organizações terroristas e terroristas individuais, mesmo na ausência de relação com um ato ou atos terroristas específicos. Os países deveriam garantir que tais crimes sejam considerados crimes antecedentes da lavagem de dinheiro.
A inclusão do país em lista suja, técnica de naming and shaming, pode ser prejudicial à economia brasileira, por contribuir para o isolamento do sistema financeiro nacional, dificultando trocas comerciais no mercado externo. Não só isso: o princípio pacta sunt servanda nos compele, uma vez que o Brasil é parte de mais de uma dezena de tratados antiterror, que formam um complexo e amplo regime global de proibição, que ora relaciono:
1. 1963 Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed On Board Aircraft (Aircraft Convention) ou Convenção relativa às infrações e a certos outros atos cometidos a bordo de aeronaves, assinada em Tóquio em 1963 e promulgada pelo Decreto 66.520/1970. 2. 1970 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft (Unlawful Seizure Convention) ou Convenção para a Repressão ao Apoderamento Ilícito de Aeronaves, assinada em Montreal em 16 de dezembro 1970 e promulgada pelo Decreto 70.201/1972. 2.1. 2010 Protocol Supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, concluído em Pequim em 2010 e ainda não ratificado. 3. 1971 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Civil Aviation Convention) ou Convenção para a Repressão aos Atos Ilícitos contra a Segurança da Aviação Civil, feita em Montreal, em 23 de setembro de 1971 e promulgada pelo Decreto 72.383/1973. 4. 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons (Diplomatic Agents Convention) ou Convenção sobre a Prevenção e Punição de Crimes contra Pessoas que Gozam de Proteção Internacional, inclusive Agentes Diplomáticos, adotada pela Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas, em Nova York, em 14 de dezembro de 1973 e promulgada pelo Decreto 3.167/1999. 5. 1979 International Convention against the Taking of Hostages (Hostages Convention) ou Convenção Internacional contra a Tomada de Reféns, adotada pela Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas em 17 de dezembro de 1979, em Nova York e promulgada pelo Decreto 3.517/2000. 6. 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (Nuclear Materials Convention) ou Convenção sobre a Proteção Física do Material Nuclear, adotada em Viena em 3 de março de 1980 e promulgada pelo Decreto 95/1991. 7. 1988 Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation, supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation (Extends and supplements the Montreal Convention on Air Safety) (Airport Protocol) ou Protocolo para a Repressão de Atos Ilícitos de Violência nos Aeroportos que Prestem Serviço à Aviação Civil Internacional, complementar à Convenção para a Repressão de Atos Ilícitos contra a Segurança da Aviação Civil, concluído em Montreal, em 24 de fevereiro de 1988 e promulgado pelo Decreto 2.611/1998. 8. 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (Maritime Convention or SUA Convention) ou Convenção para a Supressão de Atos Ilícitos contra a Segurança da Navegação Marítima, feita em Roma, em 10 de março de 1988 e promulgada pelo Decreto 6.136/2007. 8.1. 2005 Protocol to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, concluído em Londres em 2005 e ainda não ratificado. 9. 1988 Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf (Fixed Platform Protocol) ou Protocolo para a Supressão de Atos Ilícitos contra a Segurança de Plataformas Fixas localizadas na Plataforma Continental, feito em Roma em 10 de março de 1988, e promulgado pelo Decreto 6.136/2007. 9.1. 2005 Protocol to the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf, concluído em Londres em 2005 e ainda não ratificado. 10. 1991 Convention on the Marking of Plastic Explosives for the Purpose of Detection (Plastic Explosives Convention) ou Convenção sobre a Marcação de Explosivos Plásticos para Fins de Detecção, concluída em Montreal em 1991 e promulgada pelo Decreto 4.021/2001. 11. 1997 International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings (Terrorist Bombing Convention) ou Convenção Internacional sobre a Supressão de Atentados Terroristas com Bombas, adotada pela Assembléia Geral das Nações Unidas em 15 de dezembro de 1997, em Nova York e promulgada pelo Decreto 4.394/2002. 12. 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (Terrorist Financing Convention), ou Convenção Internacional para a Supressão do Financiamento do Terrorismo, concluída em Nova York em 1999 e promulgada pelo Decreto 5.640/2005. 13. 1971 Interamerican Convention to Prevent and Punish the Acts of Terrorism Taking the Form of Crimes Against Persons and Related Extortion that are of International Significance, ou Convenção para Prevenir e Punir os Atos de Terrorismo Configurados em Delitos Contra as Pessoas e a Extorsão Conexa, Quando Tiverem Eles Transcendência Internacional, Washington, 1971 (Decreto 3.018/1999) 14. 2005 International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (Nuclear Terrorism Convention), ou Convenção Internacional para a Supressão de Atos de Terrorismo Nuclear, concluída em Nova York em 2005 e aprovada pelo Decreto Legislativo 267/2009 e ainda não ratificada. 15. 2010 Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Relating to International Civil Aviation (New civil aviation convention), assinada em Pequim em 2010 e ainda não ratificada. 16. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), Tratado sobre o Comércio de Armas, concluído em Nova York em 2013 e ainda não ratificado pelo Brasil. 17. Convenção Interamericana contra o Terrorismo (Convenção de Barbados), concluída em Barbados em 2002 e promulgada pelo Decreto 5.639/2005.
Como se vê, essas convenções, patrocinadas por diferentes organizações internacionais, como as Nações Unidas (ONU), a Organização de Aviação Civil Internacional (OACI), a Organização Marítima Internacional (OMI), a Agência Internacional de Energia Atômica (AIEA) e a Organização dos Estados Americanos (OEA), conformam um subsistema universal para a criminalização de todas as formas de terrorismo, que vem sendo edificado desde os anos 1960.
Esses fatores externos levaram o governo a mexer-se, sem qualquer clamor público, como “normal e infelizmente” ocorre em temas de criminalização. O fato é que o cumprimento dos tratados e das recomendações do GAFI, assim como das resoluções do Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas (vide o projeto de lei 2020/2015), está na agenda nacional há cerca de uma década, inclusive na Estratégia Nacional de Combate à Corrupção e à Lavagem de Ativos (ENCCLA). Há vários projetos de lei no Congresso. Em 2013, durante os protestos populares, foi exaustivamente debatido. Não há surpresa alguma com o andamento do projeto 2.016/2015 no Legislativo. Não se pode ignorar que a Constituição Federal (artigo 5º, XLIII) estabelece mandado de criminalização do terrorismo desde 1988. São 27 anos:
“XLIII – a lei considerará crimes inafiançáveis e insuscetíveis de graça ou anistia a prática da tortura , o tráfico ilícito de entorpecentes e drogas afins, o terrorismo e os definidos como crimes hediondos, por eles respondendo os mandantes, os executores e os que, podendo evitá-los, se omitirem”
Tampouco se pode esquecer que a República Federativa do Brasil rege-se nas suas relações internacionais pelo princípio do repúdio ao terrorismo (art. 4º, VIII, CF).
Por isso, o Congresso tem-se debruçado sobre o tema. O PLS 236/2012, que institui o novo Código Penal, também prevê a criminalização do terrorismo e seu financiamento. Situa os tipos entre os delitos contra a paz pública, nos futuros arts. 245 a 248:
Terrorismo Art. 245. Causar terror na população mediante as seguintes condutas: I – sequestrar ou manter alguém em cárcere privado, ou ameaçar de morte ou lesão pessoas, ainda que indeterminadas; II – usar ou ameaçar usar, transportar, guardar, portar ou trazer consigo explosivos, gases tóxicos, venenos, conteúdos biológicos ou químicos ou outros meios capazes de causar danos ou promover destruição ou ofensa massiva ou generalizada; III – usar, liberar ou disseminar toxinas, agentes químicos, biológicos, radiológicos ou nucleares, ou outros meios capazes de causar danos à saúde ou ao meio ambiente; IV – incendiar, depredar, saquear, explodir ou invadir qualquer bem público ou privado; V – interferir, sabotar ou danificar sistemas de informática e bancos de dados; IV – sabotar o funcionamento ou apoderar-se, com grave ameaça ou violência a pessoas, do controle, total ou parcial, ainda que de modo temporário, de meios de comunicação ou de transporte, de portos, aeroportos, estações ferroviárias ou rodoviárias, hospitais, casas de saúde, escolas, estádios esportivos, instalações públicas ou locais onde funcionem serviços públicos essenciais, instalações de geração ou transmissão de energia e instalações militares: Pena – prisão, de oito a quinze anos, além das sanções correspondentes à violência, grave ameaça ou dano. § 1º Somente se configura o crime descrito no caput quando a conduta: I – for praticada para forçar autoridades públicas, nacionais ou estrangeiras, ou pessoas que ajam em nome delas, a fazer o que a lei não exige ou deixar de fazer o que a lei não proíbe; II – tiver por objetivo a obtenção de recursos para a manutenção de organizações políticas ou grupos armados, civis ou militares, que atuem contra a ordem constitucional e o Estado Democrático; ou III – for motivada por preconceito de raça, cor, etnia, religião, nacionalidade, origem, condição de pessoa idosa ou com deficiência, ou por razões políticas, ideológicas, filosóficas ou religiosas. Exclusão de crime § 2º Não constitui crime de terrorismo a conduta individual ou coletiva de pessoas movidas por propósitos sociais ou reivindicatórios, desde que os objetivos e meios sejam compatíveis e adequados à sua finalidade.
O fim especial de agir previsto no art. 245, §1º, do PLS 236/2012 parece adequada para a construção de um tipo menos aberto. Esta é uma das principais deficiências do PL 2.016/2015, projeto sobre o qual a ANPR, invocando outras razões, apresentou esta nota técnica contrária.
A legislação antiterrorista espanhola segue essa mesma linha e exige um fim especial de agir. É o que se vê do art. 573 do CP da Espanha:
Artículo 573. 1. Se considerarán delito de terrorismo la comisión de cualquier delito grave contra la vida o la integridad física, la libertad, la integridad moral, la libertad e indemnidad sexuales, el patrimonio, los recursos naturales o el medio ambiente, la salud pública, de riesgo catastrófico, incendio, contra la Corona, de atentado y tenencia, tráfico y depósito de armas, municiones o explosivos, previstos en el presente Código, y el apoderamiento de aeronaves, buques u otros medios de transporte colectivo o de mercancías, cuando se llevaran a cabo con cualquiera de las siguientes finalidades: 1.ª Subvertir el orden constitucional, o suprimir o desestabilizar gravemente el funcionamiento de las instituciones políticas o de las estructuras económicas o sociales del Estado, u obligar a los poderes públicos a realizar un acto o a abstenerse de hacerlo. 2.ª Alterar gravemente la paz pública. 3.ª Desestabilizar gravemente el funcionamiento de una organización internacional. 4.ª Provocar un estado de terror en la población o en una parte de ella.
A Lei de Combate ao Terrorismo, de Portugal (Lei 52/2003), não destoa dessa orientação. Define como o grupo, organização ou associação terrorista todo agrupamento de duas ou mais pessoas que, atuando concertadamente, “visem prejudicar a integridade e a independência nacionais, impedir, alterar ou subverter o funcionamento das instituições do Estado previstas na Constituição, forçar a autoridade pública a praticar um acto, a abster-se de o praticar ou a tolerar que se pratique, ou ainda intimidar certas pessoas, grupos de pessoas ou a população em geral”, mediante certas condutas que lista.
Embora o projeto 2.016/2015 não seja o melhor, já passou da hora de o Legislativo cumprir os tratados que o Brasil firmou. Prevenir e reprimir atentados terroristas é também uma agenda de direitos humanos. O foco dos projetos de criminalização não é punir movimentos pacíficos, nem protestos ou reivindicações sociais, mas sim sancionar aquelas condutas que usam a violência contra a vida ou infraestruturas críticas (aeroportos, portos, usinas etc) para provocar terror e alcançar seus objetivos, sem respeito aos mecanismos democráticos.
O terrorismo é uma das práticas mais antidemocráticas que pode existir. Em todas as democracias ocidentais esse tipo penal foi instituído. As razões? Basta lembrar os episódios de terrorismo político, religioso, de Estado e narcoterrorismo que marcaram e ainda marcam a história de países como França, Alemanha, Itália, Irlanda, Espanha, Noruega e Colômbia.
Parece necessário que o País esteja preparado para prevenir e punir, se necessário, o terrorismo jihadista ou a atuação de foreign fighters, combatentes recrutados no Ocidente e treinados no Oriente Médio para atuação como lobos solitários quando retornam a suas nações de origem. Embora, durante o atual período democrático nunca tenha havido atos terroristas no Brasil, é seguro dizer que não estamos imunes ao fenômeno e devemos ser capazes de cooperar com outras nações quando seja preciso.
Como a situação dos movimentos sociais já foi observada no texto do PL 2.016/2015, o problema fundamental do projeto está na largueza do tipo penal. Contudo, não me parece adequado adotar postura de negação do fenômeno, cuja conceituação é difícil, e fechar os olhos para um problema que já atingiu várias democracias e que é palpável hoje em várias partes do globo. Abaixo cito duas dezenas de eventos terroristas que marcaram o mundo nas últimas quatro décadas:
Alemanha: atentado nas Olimpíadas de Munique em 1972
Índia: atentado a um hotel e à bolsa de valores de Mumbai, em 1993
Escócia: atentato de Lockerbie, que resultou na queda do voo 103 da PanAm, em 1988
Argentina: atentado contra a AMIA em 1994
Japão: atentado ao metrô de Tóquio com gás sarin, em 1995
Iêmen: atentado ao destroyer USS Cole, nas águas de Áden em 2000
Estados Unidos: atentados em Nova York e Washington, em 11 de setembro de 2001
Indonésia: atentado a bares e boates em Bali em 2002
Turquia: atentados a sinagogas em 2003
Espanha: atentado à estação Atocha, em Madri, em 11 de março 2004
Rússia: atentado a uma escola em Beslan, por terroristas chechenos em 2004
Inglaterra: atentado ao metrô de Londres em 2005
Argélia: atentado à sede do Acnur, em Argel em 2007
Holanda: tentativa de atentado ao voo Northwest Airlines 253, que partiu de Amsterdã rumo a Detroit em 2009
Noruega: atentados em Oslo e Utoya (2011)
Quênia: atentado a shopping center em Nairobi em 2013
Nigéria: sequestro de meninas nigerianas pelo Boko Haram ( As meninas da Nigéria ) em 2014
França: atentado ao jornal Charlie Hebdo, em Paris, em 2015
Tunísia: atentado num hotel, em 2015
Síria: massacres generalizados comandados pelo Estado Islâmico, em 2014 e 2015
Estes atentados e massacres representam inquestionavelmente graves ofensas a direitos humanos, tendo sido praticados por motivação ideológica, religiosa, por xenofobia ou discriminação. Uma lei antiterror brasileira não servirá para “pegar” simples manifestantes. A objetividade jurídica é outra, bem diversa. Ademais, com a previsão da competência federal para julgamento desses crimes, não está a cargo dos governos estaduais o manejo da lei que vier a ser sancionada.
Isto não que dizer que o Legislativo não precise aperfeiçoar o texto do projeto para que venha uma lei adequada, abrangente e constitucional. | {
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Fatigue and the NBA Finals: How Players Raise Their Game When It Matters Most.
The puppet hiding behind the curtains, pulling the strings on what team wins in the NBA, is not the oft despised refs. It’s fatigue. With an 82-game season littered with back to back games and late night flights, players are not “giving their all” during each night out.
As fatigue rears its ugly head, players react slower, plant their foot on the ground a fraction of a second longer, and misjudge the touch on their shot by just a smidgen. Fatigue takes what you’re capable of doing, and dials down your powers just a touch. It might not seem like much, but those fractions of a second of slower reactions or less muscular power on your leap towards the basket, are the difference between winning and losing. The difference between being 12 for 14 from the field or 4 for 15, of having your lower legs soften the landing from your rebound attempt or from your muscles caving under pressure and risking serious injury.
And this kind of fatigue isn’t something that you “tough” your way through, or thwart with some grueling crossfit-style training. Like a marathon runner who has gone out too fast, the wall of fatigue will strike, regardless of how prepared you think you are. There’s a reason that teams see a distinct advantage in wins based on their travel schedule.
How do these guys survive?
They have a secret. Despite hearing their coaches yelling at them about being gritty and leaving it all out on the floor, despite the players themselves talking about effort in their post-game chat, the players don’t actually play to their full capacity. But, it’s not entirely their fault. Their bodies and brains won’t let them. You see, the brain is a powerful thing. If we look at how fatigue actually works, our body limits us from pushing to our max in order to protect itself. So a sprinter can never fully utilize every fast twitch fiber in his legs to propel him forward. If he did, he might run faster, but he might actually rip his leg apart.
This isn’t just theoretical. Researchers have shown that the muscles always have more. Take a person and put them through a grueling exercise, perhaps an all out 30-second bike, and the athlete will report that their quads are toast. Run an electrode to the muscle, shock it, and the muscle still functions, producing a contraction showing that the muscle itself can still fire and has more to give.
When it comes to how the brain and body handle fatigue, it’s almost as if we have an algorithm in our brain taking in all of the sensory information telling us how tired we are and comparing it to how much energy we have left to give. Think of it as our car comparing the gas left in the tank with our current rate of miles per gallon of gas used to understand how far we can drive before we run out of fuel. But there’s another piece to the puzzle, how much risk is involved, what’s the reward and level of importance.
Our brain weighs that complicated gas mileage algorithm with how important the task is. Should we pull over when the projected miles left is five, or should we push on beyond when the tank reaches zero? Because we never truly reach zero in our bodies energy reserves (that would mean catastrophic failure, so we’re prevented from getting there), we use the level of importance and the risk versus reward to determine how close to zero we can get. Is our life on the line? Is our child’s life in jeopardy? Then, we might be able to perform superhuman events and lift a car off of his body. Is it a regular season game or is it game 7 of the finals? We might get a little extra juice in the latter case. According to the latest science of fatigue, your brain essentially tries to protect you from harming yourself, and it uses the perceived risks versus the potential rewards to fix where that governor is.
How does this relate to fatigue of playing basketball? When a NBA player enters the game after having played 48 minutes the day before and having slept only a few measly hours on a plane, he feels the sensation of effort and pain to a much higher degree. Perhaps his legs ache or feel stiff. All of these signals are taken into account by his brain, and almost serve as an informant, saying “Hmm, the left calf is a bit iffy today, lets make sure it operates at 60% power instead of full power.” If we are putting more effort into the game then we normally do by the 2nd quarter, the brain recognizes it and makes an adjustment, and we’ll have less energy to give during the final minutes of the game. Like a runner pacing himself through a race, the basketball player, unknowingly, divides his effort out to make sure he doesn’t reach exhaustion before the game ends. If he miscalculates, dolling out excessive amounts of energy early, his performance will suffer once his brain commands that he has had enough.
Can we override fatigue?
In researching for my new book Peak Performance, I came across one way we can ever so slightly violate fatigue’s grasp. If the task at hand has a purpose that is beyond oneself, the body will let the reigns loose and allow athletes to run faster, lift more, or jump a tad higher. You don’t see this effect when an athlete is fueled by selfish reasons, but by something greater. There’s a reason you don’t see great athletes thanking themselves or their genes or their talent after making the winning basket or catching the crucial touchdown. Instead they thank god, their family, or their teammates.
When our reason for competing is of a high importance, when the reward is greater than the risk, our brains let the reigns loose. We can access a tad more strength, speed, and power. And if the situation absolutely calls for it–our child is trapped under a car– we can access what researchers call “hysterical strength.” The subtle difference of importance, meaning, and purpose might be enough to override the fatigue of playing for 48 straight minutes just enough to influence the game.
The stakes, risks, and importance are what makes playoff basketball so much better than the regular season. With each game that passes, the importance, and rewards, go up. Instead of seeing players constrained to 75%, we might actually get close to the old coaches adage of “leaving everything you had on the floor.” In the last quarter of the game, when fatigue is overtaking the bodies of these elite athletes, what may separate the winners from the losers is not their physical conditioning, but their why.
Steve Magness is the author of the new book Peak Performance. He is a coach to professional runners and can be found on twitter @stevemagness | {
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Google est en train de travailler sur Fuchsia, un nouveau système d’exploitation qui pourrait aussi bien être pensé pour les smartphones, les montres connectées que les ordinateurs, mais également tout un tas d’autres appareils électroniques, à l’image des casques de réalité virtuelle. Fuchsia pourrait ainsi remplacer Android et Chrome OS.
Le site Phoronix a trouvé sur les services d’hébergement de code source GitHub et Google Source des lignes de code relatif à Fuchsia. Si l’on en croit les commentaires laissés sur le projet, il est question d’un nouveau système d’exploitation. Google a laissé un petit indice pour tenter de cerner un peu mieux ce nouveau système d’exploitation : « Rose + Violet == Fuchsia (un nouvel OS) ». Dans la pratique, Fuchsia utilise Little Kernel (LK) et Magenta ce qui laisse supposer une intégration de cet OS dans de nombreux produits.
Des systèmes embarqués aux puissants ordinateurs
Little Kernel est en effet un système d’exploitation ultra léger pour les appareils embarqués et les bootloaders. D’un poids de seulement quelques dizaines de kilo-octets, on trouve LK dans certains bootloaders Android. Magenta est quant à lui pensé pour des systèmes beaucoup plus puissants, dotés de plusieurs Gigaoctets de mémoire vive avec le support de pilotes pour relier de nombreux périphériques, mais aussi le support des utilisateurs et des processus pour un OS multitâche. On trouve de nombreux ajouts par Google comme le langage de programmation Dart, JSON, SSL ou encore Google Go. On trouve même Flutter qui permet aux développeurs de bâtir une application Android et iOS avec une même base.
Pour le moment, Google n’a rien annoncé à propos de Fuchsia et la question de l’utilité de ce nouvel OS reste donc entière. Fuchsia va-t-il remplacer Android et Chrome OS pour unifier ces deux OS ? Pourquoi pas, mais il est aussi possible que Fuchsia soit pensé en priorité pour d’autres usages, comme l’intégration au sein des objets connectés de Google (les produits Nest, le routeur OnHub, etc.), mais aussi d’autres produits à l’image des casques de réalité virtuelle ou même des ordinateurs, comme l’indique la documentation de Google.
Fuchsia déjà dans la nature
Fuchsia commence à être testé sur différents ordinateurs comme les NUC d’Intel, mais également l’ordinateur portable Switch Alpha 12 d’Acer. Selon l’un des développeurs du projet, Fuchsia devrait bientôt être compatible avec le Raspberry Pi 3. Ce nouvel OS devrait donc être disponible assez rapidement, mais encore faudrait-il que Google officialise son existence. | {
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Publication date 1992 Publisher National Library service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Collection mensmagazines_post70s; additional_collections; no-preview Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive Contributor Internet Archive Language English-braille Volume 39
v. of press braille. - Contracted braille. Available only to those meeting the eligibility criteria of the holding agency. Fiction, interviews, and articles with a male perspective. Monthly. Beginning with May 2001 also available from Web-Braille as digital contracted braille files. Users must register with their cooperating library. Reproduction of: Chicago, Ill. : HMH Pub. co., c1953- 0032-1478 68025183
Addeddate 2011-08-12 22:26:24 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II Coverleaf 0 Donor internetarchivebookdrive Foldoutcount 0 Identifier playboybraile00nlsu Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9d51kf8t Ocr ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Page-progression lr Pages 98 Ppi 350 Scandate 20110813012140 Scanner scribe10.sanfrancisco.archive.org Scanningcenter sanfrancisco Shiptracking-z0201 Source j.scott Year 1992 Show More Show Less | {
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The Electric Monk (from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams) | {
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In her Angle commentary, Laura Ingraham said members of the alleged "anti-Trump hit squad" in the Department of Justice should be prosecuted to the "fullest extent of the law."
Ingraham said that after President Trump demanded that the DOJ look into whether his campaign was surveilled by Obama-era FBI officials, the department decided to open an inspector general investigation.
'They Destroyed the FBI and DOJ': DiGenova Blasts Obama Admin Officials on Trump Probe
'Hillary's Agony Tour' Continues: The Five Reacts to Democrats' Graduation Speeches
But, Ingraham said that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz does not have the power to prosecute, but only to conclude that there was wrongdoing.
Ingraham said all Americans, including Trump, have the right to know who if anyone spied on the Republican's campaign and who in the federal government was a part of the "anti-Trump hit squad."
She called the allegations an "obscene abuse of power."
Watch more above.
Tomi Lahren: 'Knee-Jerk Reactions' on Gun Control 'Never the Solution'
'You Wrote That': Tucker Battles CA Dem Calling for Federally Enforced Gun 'Buybacks' | {
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A screenshot of the disputed email, claiming that students have 'provided' their email addresses Varsity
Allegations emerged last night that Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Cambridge Julian Huppert and his team have sent out unsolicited promotional emails to students' @cam.ac.uk Hermes addresses.
Such unsolicited email communications are argued to be illegal under data privacy law, potentially putting Huppert's campaign in breach of election guidelines.
Varsity has obtained an email purportedly sent to students across Cambridge entitled "I felt completely helpless", which recounts campaigner Hannah Thompson's experiences as the victim of a so-called "revenge porn" attack.
Tom Wilson, Campaigns Officer for the Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC), took to Twitter to describe the communications as "crass"; others described the emails as "manipulative" and "completely unwelcome".
Screenshot of Wilson's tweet calling Huppert's use of Hannah Thompson's experiences for his electoral campaign 'crass' without appropriate trigger warnings Twitter
CULC alleges that the email was sent to the semi-public mailing list available through the University lookup service. This, if true, would represent a breach of guidelines from the Information Commissioner, which require that parties receive direct, specific consent (pages 10-24) from email marketing recipients before sending such messages.
The enforcement powers of the Information Commissioner activate in the event of a breach, and may include audits, monetary penalties and prosecution, though the practices complained of do not represent a breach of the Representation of the People Act. A similar incident in Bath last month elicited an apology from the party and an assurance that they would donate a proportion of the money raised from the unsolicited emails to charity.
This is the second report of legal complaint being made against Huppert during the electoral campaign ahead of 7th May. Last month, Varsity reported that the Conservative parliamentary candidate, Chamali Fernando, was considering suing Huppert for defamation for his comments in the wake of the wristband scandal. The future of Ms Fernando’s action remains unclear, but a spokesperson for her campaign confirmed to Varsity that she is still taking advice on future legal action.
A spokesperson for CULC told Varsity: "Several students have brought to our attention multiple emails sent to their Hermes accounts from the Cambridge Liberal Democrats on behalf of Julian Huppert, without their consent, breaking Electoral Commission guidelines [sic] and bringing into question serious data protection issues.
"Not only this, but one of the emails contain tasteless material about a personal account of revenge porn, despite containing no trigger warnings, for electoral purposes. Many students have found this upsetting and are rightly questioning how the Liberal Democrats gained access to their emails.
"CULC echoes these concerns, and hopes that Julian and the Liberal Democrats will apologise to any students who felt that they received emails they did not consent to containing material they were not comfortable with.
"We also call on the Liberal Democrats for clarification about how such emails were obtained, and why these emails were sent in the first place considering another Liberal Democrat group in Bath was criticised for doing the same thing just a few weeks ago, something they must have been aware of."
A spokesperson for Cambridge Liberal Democrats released a statement to Varsity: "We have sent a number of emails to students over the last two years to keep them informed of Julian's activities. All of these have included the appropriate opt-outs.
"We take the issue of data protection and privacy seriously. We apologise to anyone who feels that they have received an email from us that they did not wish to and will very happily remove their details from our database.
"We will, of course, act on the individual cases that have already been drawn to our attention."
@rtrnicholl | {
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My designs for Hoofbeard the pirate, who will be appearing in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic issues #13 & #14!
(though in the issue, Hoofbeard looks a bit older/more mature than he appears in the original concept drawing!) | {
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On May 12th, 2018, the Eat Healthy Eat Local Festival filled the streets of beautiful downtown St. Johns Michigan with 84 local businesses specializing in healthy food, natural remedies, nutrition, and physical/mental wellness. The EHEL Festival connected the community with Michigan made businesses, farms, health food stores, handmade items (soaps/oils, lip balms, cleaning and self-care products, etc.), massage therapists, nutritionists, chiropractors, wellness spas, etc., while enjoying healthy selections from Michigan-Made food trucks. | {
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Wir stellen unsere Artikel und Faktenchecks kostenlos für alle zur Verfügung.
Hilf uns dabei, dass das so bleiben kann.
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Die AfD steht nicht (mehr) auf dem Boden der Verfassung
Versteht mich nicht falsch, ich bin nicht so optimistisch, dass ich glaube, dass die AfD durch ein paar Sätze zu Fall kommen könnte. Dann wäre das schon längst geschehen. Weder diese Liste an AfD-Zitaten (Quelle), noch diese (Link), noch diese (Link) werden AfD-Wähler*innen überzeugen. Auch diese eindeutig faschistoiden Zitate von Höcke (Link) oder die unzähligen Neonazi-Verbindungen von Kalbitz (Link) nicht. Sie werden einfach die Realität leugnen – oder die Zitate gut finden.
Aber wen alle diese Beweise überzeugt haben? Den Verfassungsschutz. Nachdem bereits Höcke und Kalbitz überwacht wurden, wird jetzt der gesamte, rechtsextreme “Flügel” der AfD vom Verfassungsschutz als “erwiesen extremistisch” eingestuft. Diese Einstufung bedeutet, dass die Bewegung mit dem ganzen Instrumentarium nachrichtendienstlicher Mittel beobachtet werden darf (Quelle).
Die AfD und ihre Anhänger*innen werden das alles als unbegründet, erfunden und falsch abtun – so wie sie jede Kritik diffamieren und alle Fakten leugnen, die ihr nicht ins Weltbild passt. Ja, das bedeutet noch nicht automatisch das Ende der AfD. Aber es könnte der Anfang von ihrem Ende sein. Denn wenn der “Flügel” jetzt offiziell rechtsextrem ist, ist das ein großes Problem für die AfD. Lasst es mich erklären.
Die AfD wird Höcke & den “Flügel” nicht los
Nach zwei (!) gescheiterten Versuchen, den Faschisten Höcke aus der Partei zu werfen, in denen jeweils der “gemäßigtere” Flügel der AfD (zunächst Lucke und danach Petry) die Macht verlor, ist deutlich: Höcke, Kalbitz und seine verfassungsfeindliche Ideologie haben einen festen Platz in der AfD. Und waren treibende Kräfte hinter immer weiteren Radikalisierungen.
Das ist auch der Grund, warum Gauland und Meuthen an Höcke und dessen “Flügel” festhalten, auch wenn dieser die AfD in den Abgrund reißen könnte. Höcke und Kalbitz und der Flügel sind dafür in der AfD viel zu mächtig und Gauland würde nur seinen eigenen Sturz wie Lucke und Petry vor ihm herbeiführen. Warum Höcke jedoch für die AfD und letzten Endes für unsere Demokratie eine so große Gefahr darstellt, möchte ich zuerst beleuchten. Damit man versteht, warum Gaulands Aussagen bei Maischberger so wegweisend sind.
Höcke ist schlicht und ergreifend ein Faschist und Neonazi
Das ist keine Übertreibung, das ist keine Polemik, das ist keine “Nazi-Keule”. Nicht einmal mutwilliges Aus-dem-Kontext-reißen von Einzelaussagen. Das ist ein Fakt. Wer das leugnet ist entweder blind, naiv oder selbst Faschist. Der Verfassungsschutz sieht das ähnlich. Und bevor rechte Verschwörungstheorien auftauchen: Das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz steht nicht gerade in der Tradition, leichtfertig Rechtsextreme zu verfolgen. Ich möchte nur an den NSU erinnern.
Dieses Amt sieht im Höcke-Flügel “hinreichend gewichtige Anhaltspunkte” dafür, “dass es sich um eine extremistische Bestrebung handelt”. Ein beträchtlicher Teil des 1000-seitigen Berichts des Verfassungsschutzes, zusammengestellt ausschließlich aus öffentlich zugänglichen Quellen, handelt nur von Höcke. Ganze 400 Seiten (Quelle). Unsere LeserInnen mögen es verstehen, dass deshalb eine Zusammenfassung von uns nur die Oberfläche ankratzen kann. Deshalb hier ein kurzer Umriss.
Er möchte die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus positiv betrachten, was man aus einer Rede auch einfach herauslesen kann. Der Geschichtslehrer (!) Höcke wünscht sich eine “tausendjährige Zukunft”. Ideologisch hat er eindeutig eine Nähe zum Nationalsozialismus, den er verherrlicht und verharmlost (Quelle, Quelle). Wir könnten dutzende Aussagen, Zitate und Forderungen aufzählen, die das belegen. Mehr hier, hier, hier und hier. Er will das Parteiensystem und die Demokratie abschaffen.
Höcke & Kalbitz
Höcke hat dazu aufgerufen, sich auf eine “kommende Revolution vorzubereiten”, um sich an die Spitze der “Revolution “zu setzen, er möchte die NS-Wirtschaftspolitik auf rassenbiologischer Grundlage wieder einführen und hat 2012 dazu aufgerufen, die NPD zu wählen. Zumindest tat das das Pseudonym “Landolf Ladig”.
Aber ausführlichste Recherchen von Andreas Kemper zeigen, dass man sicher sein kann, dass es sich dabei um ein Pseudonym Höckes handelte. (Hier zu Kempers Ausführungen, hier zusammengefasste Belege vom Zentrum für politische Schönheit) In einem Ausschnitt des Berichts vom Verfassungsschutz, welcher uns vorliegt, geht auch das Amt “nicht anfechtbar plausibilisiert” (Quelle) davon aus, dass es sich hierbei um die gleiche Person handelt. Höcke ist ein Faschist, durch und durch.
Auch Andreas Kalbitz hat eine rechtsextreme Vergangenheit, wirkte an verherrlichenden Filmen zu Hitler und der Wehrmacht mit und ist eng verknüpft mit der Neonazi-Szene. Er war und ist in mehreren, u.a. von echten Nationalsozialisten gegründeten und vom Verfassungsschutz beobachteten und sogar verbotenen, rechtsextremen Gruppierungen Mitglied (Mehr dazu). Mehr dazu:
Die AfD ist die Höcke-Partei
Höcke wurde mit einer großen Mehrheit zum AfD-Spitzenkandidaten für die Thüringer Landtagswahl 2019 gewählt. Das jüngste Parteiausschlussverfahren scheiterte, der Vorstand will oder muss akzeptieren, dass Höckes Ideologie und damit sein Faschismus und sein Ethnopluralismus (Hier mehr dazu) ein wesentlicher Teil der AfD sind (Quelle). Und das scheint zum Glück auch der Verfassungsschutz so zu sehen. Und genau deswegen sind die angekündigten Aussagen von führenden AfD-Politiker*innen so problematisch.
Denn die AfD ist längst die Flügel-Partei. Auch wenn “nur” der Flügel der AfD offiziell rechtsextrem ist, kann man die AfD nicht getrennt vom “Flügel” betrachten. Der Flügel ist nicht nur die stärkste Kraft in der Partei, sondern ihr zentraler Kern. Und das behaupte nicht ich, sondern die AfD selbst.
AfD sagt: Rechtsextremismus sind ihr zentraler Kern
„Der Flügel ist ein integraler Bestandteil unserer Partei, und das wird er auch in Zukunft immer bleiben.“ – Parteichef Jörg Meuthen (Quelle) „Der Flügel ist eine ganz wichtige Strömung innerhalb der Partei“ – Fraktionschefin Alice Weidel (Quelle) “Herr Höcke rückt die Partei nicht nach rechts. Herr Höcke ist die Mitte der Partei.” – Fraktionschef Alexander Gauland (Quelle) “Ich halte den ‘Flügel’ “für einen Bestandteil in dieser Partei.” – Parteichef Tino Chrupalla (Quelle) “Den ,Flügel`unterstützen auf Parteitagen allenfalls 40 Prozent der Delegierten“ – Gauland (Quelle)
Der “Höcke”-Flügel ist der stärkste Flügel der Partei. Ohne die Unterstützung von Höcke kann niemand AfD-Vorstand werden. Tino Chrupalla hat auch gute Kontakte zum “Flügel”. Und deswegen schützt Gauland ihn, deswegen lobt Weidel ihn, deswegen verteidigt Gauland ihn. Sie haben gesagt, dass die stärkste Kraft in der AfD die Faschisten und Neonazis sind. Sie haben zugegeben, dass Rechtsextremismus und Faschismus ein “integraler” “Bestandteil” der AfD ist, eine “ganz wichtige Strömung” und “die Mitte der Partei”. Die AfD sagt, dass die AfD rechtsextrem und verfassungsfeindlich ist.
Die gesamte AfD muss beobachtet werden
Wenn der Verfassungsschutz seinem Namen gerecht werden will, muss er zum Schluss kommen, dass die AfD insgesamt damit direkt die deutsche Demokratie und die freiheitlich-demokratische Grundordnung bedroht und beobachtet werden muss. Mir widerstrebt es, ausgerechnet im Verfassungsschutz das vielversprechendste Mittel gegen die AfD zu sehen. Aber eine offizielle Einteilung als rechtsextrem würde die AfD vollständig stigmatisieren und Dammbrüche wie in Thüringen hoffentlich unmöglich machen beziehungsweise Kollaborateure bestrafen.
Das an sich wird wohl nicht die täglich durch AfD-Propaganda gehirngewaschenen Wähler*innen zurück ins demokratische Spektrum holen, jedoch verhindern, dass noch mehr Menschen auf die Propaganda und die Lügen der AfD hereinfallen. Es wird vielleicht leichter machen, Rechtsextremisten aus den Behörden zu verbannen, die die Demokratie von innen heraus angreifen und erodieren. Es wird Druck ausüben, gegen den immer stärker werdenden Nazi-Terror vorzugehen, der jetzt schon viele Menschenleben kostet (Mehr dazu).
Ich wünschte mir natürlich eine “Entzauberung” der Lügen und verzerrten Darstellungen der AfD. Dass man ihre Aussagen und Forderungen als das erkennt, was sie sind. Und am Ende vielleicht mit einer demokratischen Rest-AfD übrig bleibt, die “lediglich” wertekonservativ, marktradikal und regressiv ist. Was ich immer noch ablehnen würde. Aber dann würde man sich wenigstens auf einem gemeinsamen demokratischen Boden bewegen. Doch diesen Weg scheint die Partei nicht mehr zu gehen. Alle Demokrat*innen müssen deshalb klare Kante zeigen.
Artikelbild: Paul Velasco, shutterstock.com | {
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Saturday is D-Day for a number of QPR players.
A defeat, or at least a lack of performance against Bolton tomorrow, and the management will reconvene on Monday to look for temporary replacements.
Director of football Les Ferdinand laid it on the line for a squad that folded at last Friday’s west London derby with Fulham, but first wants to see if those on the bench so far can plug any gaps.
If the answer is no, Rangers are prepared to dip into the transfer market.
“There’s no money set aside, but we’ll find it if we need to.
“We brought new faces in. There’s people who haven’t played, and have had to sit on the sidelines, and may now get an opportunity and stake a claim for a spot.
“After the Bolton game, we’re going into the international break and we’ll sit down and see if we do need to bring people in.
“Look at Fulham they got relegated the year before and nearly went down last year. They understood where they were and we understand where we are.”
Ferdinand confirmed Sebastian Polter, who has not featured since last month’s League Cup defeat against Carlisle will be pencilled in against the Trotters after recovery from a hamstring injury
“He’s had a good week’s training and he should be there or thereabouts,” added Ferdinand.
Hotshot Charlie Austin is sidelined for a month with a hamstring injury, and Polter would be his natural replacement. | {
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Stoya is simply irresistible in her black lingerie, it fits perfectly her pale skin and red hair.
Here she strips and slowly reveal her perfect body in the most
... | {
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Image caption Alun Cairns promised to engage with the committee at the "earliest opportunity"
The Welsh secretary's refusal to give evidence in person about the replacement of EU funds post-Brexit "shows a worrying disregard for Wales", an assembly committee chair has said.
Alun Cairns told the finance committee he did not feel it necessary to attend.
Simon Thomas accused Mr Cairns of failing to engage "appropriately and respectfully".
The Wales Office said the Welsh Secretary was accountable to Parliament.
The assembly's finance committee is conducting an inquiry into the preparations for replacing EU funding for Wales after the UK leaves the 28-nation bloc.
Mr Cairns has been criticised previously for not attending the committee to give evidence.
In a letter to the chair, the Welsh secretary said he "did not think it necessary" to attend the inquiry in person but pledged to engage with the committee at the "earliest opportunity".
He said he recognised the importance of the funds to Wales.
Image caption Simon Thomas said Alun Cairns showed a "worrying disregard for Wales"
Mr Thomas, a Plaid Cymru AM, said Mr Cairns "also failed to provide the committee to date" with any written evidence.
As one of the poorer parts of the European Union, Wales will have received more than £5bn in so-called structural funds by 2020 - roughly £370m a year.
Wales also receives more than £300m annually from the EU's main agricultural funding scheme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Both funding streams are set to come to an end after the UK leaves the EU, with UK and Welsh Government ministers working on successor programmes.
Responding to the letter, Mr Thomas said: "Refusing to attend such an important inquiry, including refusing to provide any evidence in his absence, shows a worrying disregard for Wales.
"This failure is part of a pattern of behaviour by Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns, to engage appropriately and respectfully with the National Assembly.
"Hiding from scrutiny makes me wonder if he has any ideas at all about what will replace these valuable funding streams," he added.
'Accountable to Parliament'
A spokesperson for the Wales Office said Mr Cairns had "given evidence to National Assembly committees on several occasions in recent months on Britain's exit from the EU".
"As a UK minister, it is important to note and widely recognised that the Secretary of State for Wales is accountable to Parliament and in particular to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee," the spokesperson said.
"We have also committed to future engagement with stakeholders including the Welsh Government and the National Assembly on Brexit issues, but did not consider it the right time to give evidence on this occasion." | {
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Microsoft will pay more than $25 million to settle a bribery probe by the U.S. Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission into foreign corruption allegations. DOJ and SEC were investigating whether Microsoft violated a U.S. law barring overseas corruption. The agencies announced the settlement Monday.
The investigation centered on software sales in Hungary between 2012-2015. According to the Justice Department, Microsoft Hungary employees told the company they needed to discount products to sell them to government officials. In reality, the discounts were not passed onto customers and the savings were used for “corrupt purposes” according to DOJ, which called it a “bid rigging and bribery scheme” in the settlement documents.
“Today’s settlements involved employee misconduct that was completely unacceptable,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an email to employees that was also published on the company’s blog.
The world will successfully root corruption out of the global economy only if individuals, businesses, and governments everywhere stand up and deliver the message together that they will not stand for conduct that facilitates corruption.
Federal authorities have looked into other Microsoft business relationships in places like China, Russia, Pakistan, Italy, and Romania during the same time period but the settlement announced Monday is only focused on Hungary, “where the most concerning conduct took place,” according to Smith. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the investigation in 2018.
The $26 million will be split across DOJ and SEC. Microsoft Hungary, a subsidiary of the Redmond, Wash., software company, entered a nonprosecution agreement with the Justice Department as part of the settlement.
DOJ said that Microsoft “received credit” for cooperating with the investigation even though the company did not admit wrongdoing.
Microsoft fired four employees in Hungary three years ago and ended relationships with four resellers tied to the scheme. Smith said that those responsible are “individuals and businesses that, in our view, behaved in a wholly unethical manner.”
Microsoft implemented a new system of controls to catch bad actors following the Hungary case. The company added a transparency program to ensure discounts are passed on to customers, strengthened its anti-corruption program, and added machine learning oversight that flags transactions that could be out of compliance.
“Ultimately, the world will successfully root corruption out of the global economy only if individuals, businesses, and governments everywhere stand up and deliver the message together that they will not stand for conduct that facilitates corruption,” Smith said in the email. | {
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After just falling short against Giovinco’s Toronto side, the Red Bulls are looking to bounce back today against a Philadelphia side who now have no chance of reaching the playoffs. Despite that 2-1 loss, Jesse Marsch’s side sit clear at the top of the Eastern Conference with 4 points and a game in hand on 2nd placed Columbus Crew.
In their most recent game, Philadelphia also lost to the hands of Toronto in a convincing defeat where they were 2nd best all game. Making just 5 shots to Toronto’s 21 (producing a TSR of 0.192) and 38% possession, the Union were dominated by their opposition whose integration of Sebastien Giovinco was crucial.
Philadelphia lined out in a 4-4-1-1 formation which struggled to control the central space between midfield and defence in defence, whilst it failed to access the same space when going forward.
Andre Blake started as a goalkeeper behind a back four of Andrew Wenger, Richie Marquez, Steven Vitória and Raymon Gaddis from left to right. Brian Carroll and Michael Lahoud made up a double pivot which had some connection issues throughout due to their positioning. Cristián Maidana, the Union playmaker, featured as a 10 in between the much less influential C.J Sapong and Eric Mbu. Fernando Aristeguieta lead the line ahead of this 3 and looked competent despite his lack of service during periods of the game.
Zonal Marking and Degrees of Compactness without the Ball
An interesting feature of the Union defensive setup was their use of a zonal marking system. Specifically, they used a more standard position-orientation where an individual’s reference point for his positioning is his teammates. As a collective, they look to work a closed defensive block and control the space through maintaining a strong spacing with a clear organisation.
The above diagram is taken from Rene Maric’s analysis of the variations of Zonal Marking on our website, Spielverlagerung. Click on the image to be taken there.
The clearest contrast between this and the more common man-marking is that by looking to control space, the team can maintain a clear organisation where a man-marking one would be disorganised by opposition movement.
Situationally, in spaces closer to the ball the nearby players could become oriented to man-marking which was done in order to maintain an ability to put pressure on the ball. Through doing this they also had the intention of simply cutting off short options and making the build-up more difficult for Toronto.
A big advantage of position-oriented zonal marking is that it allows a team to maintain its compactness. This is not only because the structure isn’t disrupted by opposition movements, but that maintaining minimal gaps between players is the main aim. Such a defensive system was executed by Lucien Favre at Borussia Monchengladbach to great success. Also defending in a 4-4-2 formation, they were very compact without possession and teams such as Bayern struggled to break through the centre of the shape.
However, despite looking to maintain this compact defence, Philadelphia had some issues in the execution of their strategy. Mainly they struggled to contain Sebastien Giovinco who frequently found small gaps of space in between the lines of midfield and defence. The Italian’s close control and dribbling ability is vital in such situations as it allows him to keep the ball against heavy defensive pressure.
Against Philadelphia, it will be important for RBNY to get their similar players in positions within the Union defensive block. If Felipe and Dax McCarty can find incisive passes into players such as Sam and Veron in between the lines then they can use their technical ability to keep a hold of the ball and move the attack through a dangerous position.
Lack of Central Access in Possession
In an overall poor performance, the Union were quite weak in a few key aspects of their possession game.
During their build-up, there was often a disconnection between the two central midfielders which made the task of moving the ball through the midfield very difficult. When you paired this disconnection with a lack of support from the two wide players, it meant that the ball-carrier could be isolated. This would force a large number of long balls as a last resort which the Toronto backline easily dealt with.
Without a strong build-up of possession, the Union found it difficult to have an effective possession game higher up the pitch. Throughout the game, they struggled to break through the centre of Toronto’s defensive block and instead would harmlessly move the ball through the wings.
This was highlighted by the movement of Maidana, who had to drop deep or to wide positions just to get a touch of the ball. The areas in which he did manage to receive a pass were weak in terms of strategical value and the opposition were content for him to stay in these positions.
In the above scene you can see how Maidana has had to move to the wing to get on the ball. Not only this, but the great distances between him and his nearest teammates are evident which makes for a disconnected attack. The attacking midfielder has no support around him and must make an isolated attack which has a limited degree of variability and thus, is predictable. After slowing his man down with ease, Jackson makes a simple tackle to dispossess the Union attacker.
Without the ability to use the centre effectively in the final third, the majority of attacks from Philadelphia came from wide areas. They hardly threatened from such areas as their means of creating chances were linear due to the limited possibilities provided by wide spaces.
When attacking down the wing, there are only a small selection of options which can be taken. The most common two are to make a cross, which itself is a very inefficient choice, or a dribble. There are then issues with the latter when a) the player only has 180’ of movement and b) it is usually isolated, so he is alone up against 1 or more defenders.
When it comes down to the clash today, Marsch will be looking for his side to emphasise this issue of Philadelphia’s possession game. Throughout the season, the Red Bulls have developed a clear defensive strategy which is based on a pressing game with central control. This could be a vital feature of the match as they must continue to restrict the opposition’s access into the centre.
After their 3-1 loss to Toronto over 2 weeks ago, Jim Curtin has had ample time to prepare for this fixture and will be demanding an improved performance from his team. We are also bound to see similar expectations from Marsch, whose Red Bull team will be looking to finish the regular season strong at the top of the table. If his team are able to exploit the weakness both with and without the ball which the Union showed against Toronto, they look a good bet to do so too. | {
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Etrian Odyssey V: The End of the Long Myth comes out in less than a month in Japan, and today, Atlus announced that the demo version would launch on July 20th. Unfortunately, the company doesn’t specify what this demo includes, but we can assume it will be the same as those for the previous Nintendo 3DS entries (with the beginning sections of the game).
Naturally, players will be able to transfer their save data to the full game. This will allow them to keep not just their progress, but also the characters they created (who will keep their appearance, level, stats, equipment, skills, etc.).
What’s more, Atlus specifies that the game systems will be exactly the same in the demo as in the full game: that includes character creation, as players will have access to all options available in the full game. In other words: it will be like playing the full game, though only up to a certain point.
There will be not be any restrictions regarding the main gameplay systems, but there will be some restrictions nonetheless (the usual demo restrictions):
in the full version, you can have up to 9 different save data files (with some stored on the SD Card), but in the demo version, you can only have one (on the SD Card);
you cannot use “Quick Save” in the demo version (you can in the full version);
due to size limitations for the demo, the quality of the music in the demo will be inferior to that of the full game (you will get FM instead);
you can only play the demo up to 30 times.
But it’s not just the demo version of Etrian Odyssey V that will launch on July 20th: pre-loading will also be available on the same day. By pre-loading, players will be able to purchase and download the game right away. Then, on launch day, they will only have to download a small update at 12AM JST to unlock the game.
Etrian Odyssey V (3DS) comes out on August 4th in Japan.
Source: Atlus | {
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That’s right, it’s like the 19th century for children in my nursery. Not only do I force my own children to pull weeds in the midday Florida heat, repotting ficus after ficus, and trimming thorny bougainvilleas without gloves, I have found a way to exploit a loophole in the State of Florida Orphanage and Child Work System. I can use parentless children for farm labor and, get this, they pay me to do it! And you should see what happens when the plucky ones ask for more gruel. It’s off to the un-wiring shed for them where the task of removing the miles of wire I’ve put on my trees is removed. This is Benjamin, one more bit of backtalk and it’s weeding with chopsticks for him.
Actually, it was out of his neighbors yard where I dug out the main subject of this article, a bougainvillea (which was chronicled in This Post). He brought a Brazilian Raintree to work on as well. I, of course, told him to defoliate it and cut off the thorns.
Then we cut it back and wired it.
Then, because it’s too late in the year to cut back the roots too much, we up-potted it into a slightly larger pot.
It’s in a flattop style. But enough about his tree, he has his own Blog, go check it out. Btw, he’s only 14 yrs of age. He’s not an orphan but, as many kids his age, I bet that, at times, he wishes he was.
Here’s the tree we are working on today.
Here’s how it looked last time you saw it.
Today’s task is to cut it back to a line, and put it into this pot:
And use this soil.
There should be enough. Hopefully. Let’s get to work and see what’s happening.
Well, it seems like there was some dieback. There’s some kind of fungus among us.
I wonder what it tastes like?
Ok, we can deal with that. It’ll give it character. Just a little rot.
When they sell these trees, the grower tends to stick four, five or six plants in one pot, and as they get older they almost fuse. But when one dies back, it tends to take a whole section with it. Kinda like this.
This is one “tree”. The bottom mostly died back but it threw roots through the rotted area and re-rooted in the soil. But it’s not stable. We shall rip it out, methinks.
There we go, that’ll be a cool tree by itself.
Looks like the Sentinel robot from The Matrix. And the hole left over looks like I just extracted a tooth.
Next I begin- The Prune.
Benjamin was able to sneak a few pics of me.
I don’t like too many pics of myself on the blog, I might start getting panties in the mail and, it’s easy to say that my wife wouldn’t like that at all. But look at that forearm and the wavy hair. Those broad shoulders……
Anyway, here’s the tree, cut back.
Now to figure out the front.
This side might look good in the flat world of the Internet.
But the branching doesn’t support it.
Everything is going back. So, it’s the other side. Will it fit?
Good root ball.
We gently rake out the roots, keeping as much as we can
It just about fits.
We need to rotate it ever so slightly though so, out comes the big boy saw.
Ah, that’s better. A tree this big, with the amount of roots it had, needs a lot of chopsticking
Now it’s all done except for the fine styling.
Which can wait. I must say that I tend to ignore my bougies a bit too much. I don’t think I’ll ever get the ramification that Erik Wigert gets on his trees. And since I don’t have a good after pic, I’ll steal some of his.
Now those are some bougies!
Erik is having his open house this weekend (November 7&8, in N. Ft. Myers, Fl). If you’re in town you should try to make it, it’s a free event and this year it features Marc Noelanders (of the famous Noelanders Trophy in Belgium).
Check out Erik’s website for more info (here’s the show schedule). Hope to see you there!
In the next post, I’ll revisit a tree I found just before I got sick last year. Let’s see how it’s been doing. | {
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Getting renewable energy sources to plug into existing infrastructure is not straightforward (Image: Eddie Mulholland/Rex Features)
Fears over energy security and climate change have led to record investment in renewable energy. But a major problem threatens to stall progress towards a more sustainable future: national electricity grids are far from ready to cope with the variable output from the new technologies.
A solution might be at hand, though, and would not involve radical changes to the existing infrastructure. Treating groups of dispersed power sources, such as solar and wind generators, as a single entity could solve the problem, creating the virtual equivalent of a single large power station.
“[The power companies’ existing] philosophy is that they’re going to run the grids as if these new renewable sources did nothing to help – a ‘fit and forget’ strategy,” says Goran Strbac at Imperial College London, UK.
That’s because grids must always match the region’s energy requirements, second by second, and renewable sources go through extreme fluctuations as the sun goes in, night falls, or the wind drops, says Peter Lang, at EDF Energy Networks, the Distribution Network Operator for London, East and South East of England.
If energy generation doesn’t match energy use, power cuts or overload is the result. But as investment in renewable sources grows, grids will have to adapt to less reliable sources.
Chaotic grids
The ever-growing number of wind farms in Europe, and the US are in particular forcing the hand of grid maintainers. And growing interest from consumers in microgeneration – installing, say, solar panels to cover their own needs and selling any excess back to the grid – presents an even greater headache.
In coming years, the number of generators contributing to the grid is set to balloon dramatically by thousands or even millions. “The logistics of controlling even a few hundred large power stations are difficult,” says Strbac.
The best solution suggested so far is a concept known as the “virtual power plant”, says Lang. Each virtual plant consists of several hundred or thousand microgenerators lumped together in cyberspace into a unit comparable to that of a large power station.
Mixed bag
A virtual power plant can contain a mixture of different generators, for example wind turbines, solar cells, hydroelectric dams, and biomass-fuelled combined heat and power stations. A well-chosen mix of all these types can offset the inherent unreliability of different generators to make a virtual plant that can be treated much the same as a conventional one.
Homeowners might benefit from the arrangement too. Strbac says that, in theory, the owner of, say, a few photovoltaic cells could opt to switch between a number of virtual power plants during the day to find the best price for their power at any precise moment.
Implementing virtual power plants is possible with relatively little modification to existing infrastructure, says Lang. “It’s not about wholesale replacement of the existing system – you’d never be allowed to do something so disruptive – it’s about looking at the existing network and seeing what we have to do to monitor it more successfully,” he says.
Large-scale trial
Field trials of the virtual power plant concept have taken place in Woking, UK, and are due soon in the Álava province in Spain, as part of a EU-funded project called FENIX. The project brings together academics like Strbac from across Europe, along with a number of large energy distributors, including EDF and Iberdrola.
The Álava trial will begin in September, and will see the FENIX team use live data from renewable energy generators in the area to see how it could be repackaged into virtual power plants. Although it won’t use that to control real energy demand, the team hopes to show the technique works.
“The portfolio [of energy systems in the Alava virtual power plant] has around 100 megavolt-amperes [100 megawatts] installed capacity,” says Juan Marti Rodriguez of Iberdrola, which could provide Álava’s 300,000-strong population with around half of its peak load.
The trial will account for 1 per cent of Spain’s entire energy distribution Rodriguez adds: “It’s not too difficult to imagine applying the FENIX concept for the whole country.” | {
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Were six members of a Kerala family poisoned to death? Woman relative in custody
The mortal remains of six members of the family were exhumed on Friday.
news Conspiracy
A day after the dead bodies of six members of a family were exhumed from their graves in Kerala, the police have taken four people into custody for questioning.
Six members of a family from Koodathai of Kozhikode district, including retired educational department officer Tom Jose, his wife and retired teacher Annamma, their son Roy Thomas and three other relatives died between 2002 and 2016. Now, the Crime Branch team has taken Roy’s ex-wife Jolly into custody. Shaju, her current husband and Tom Jose's nephew, was also questioned by the police.
According to reports, another man, who works in a jewellery store, too, is being questioned. The police are questioning the man to find out if he had supplied poison.
As of now, there is no hard evidence to link the six deaths, and the investigating team has taken the persons concerned into questioning to find out if there's a connection or if the deaths were coincidental.
Here’s a timeline of the six deaths:
56-year-old Annamma, Tom Jose’s wife, died in 2002. She is believed to have had a bowl of mutton soup and passed away subsequently.
Tom Jose (66) died six years later, in 2008. He’s said to have eaten a tapioca dish and then collapsed vomiting. Both died before being taken to the hospital.
Roy Thomas, son of Annamma and Tom Jose, died in 2011 and was survived by his wife Jolly. The suspicion of the relatives intensified when cyanide was found in his body. However, his wife Jolly claimed that he had financial issues and may have killed himself. A case of suspicious death was filed.
Next, Annamma’s brother, Mathew Manjadiyil, who stayed near the couple's house, died in 2014. Mathew did not have any children and a few relatives suspected that it was foul play and that the motive was his property.
In the same year, another person related to Tom Jose passed away, this time a child. His nephew Shaju's baby Alphine died. Shaju was the son of Tom Jose's brother Zacharias. The child had choked and according to relatives, she had had an epileptic attack.
In 2016, Shaju’s wife Cily passed away. Cily had gone with Shaju for a dentist’s appointment when she suddenly died. Jolly is believed to have been with them.
In 2017, after all the deaths, Shaju and Jolly got married. This made people all the more suspicious that the deaths were not natural or accidental.
The case is currently being investigated by the Crime Branch following a complaint from Roy’s brother Rojo, who is based in the United States. According to reports, the complainant alleged that relatives were trying to grab Tom Jose’s property.
Vadakara Rural SP KG Simon told the media that all the deceased had consumed food prior to their death and that this could have been a case of slow poisoning. He made it clear that the investigation team had reasonable doubt in the case which led them to exhume the mortal remains.
The mortal remains of Tom Jose, Annamma, their son Roy Thomas and Annamma’s brother Mathew Manjadiyil, were exhumed from Koodathayi St Mary’s Church cemetery. Cily and her 10-month-old child Alphine had been buried at the Kodenchery church cemetery and their bodies were exhumed from there. With police suspecting the usage of arsenic or cyanide, tests will be done on their remains to find traces of poison.
According to reports, post-mortem was done only on Roy Thomas’s body at the time of death. Though Malayalam media reports said that the post-mortem had revealed traces of poison, at the time of death, it had been categorised as suicide. Roy Thomas’s body was found in a bathroom which had been locked from the inside.
"Jolly is in the police station now. Her husband Shaju and Annamma’s brother Zacharias too are being questioned. We had questioned her earlier. We cannot reveal anything more for the time being," a police officer in the investigating team told TNM. | {
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To ensure the success of the seventh Bali Democracy Forum, police announced on Monday that they would not tolerate demonstrations or protests of any kind during the two-day event.
Bali Deputy Police chief Brig. Gen. IGN Raharja Subyakta said that for the duration of the forum, all rallies would be banned in the Nusa Dua area, where the international forum will be held.
The one-star general added that protests would also be prohibited at Ngurah Rai International Airport.
'To ensure the event runs smoothly, Nusa Dua will be cleared of protesters, as will the airport. All rallies will be banned,' Raharja said, adding that action would be taken if protests took place without the issuance of proper permits.
According to Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression in public, issued shortly after the fall of president Soeharto in May 1998, organizers of street protests are only required to inform the public in writing regarding the details of a planned protest.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono initiated the forum in 2008 with a stated goal of 'fostering dialogue-based regional and international cooperation in the field of peace and democracy through the sharing of experiences and best-practices that adhere to the principles of equality, mutual respect and understanding'.
The President is scheduled to open the meeting on Friday, just 10 days before he is replaced as president by Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo.
As many as 4,600 military and police personnel will be deployed to safeguard the international event.
Security task force commander for the Bali Democracy Forum, Brig. Gen. Ruslian Hariadi told reporters on Monday that five warships, four F-16 fighter jets and four Sukhoi fighter jets would also be deployed for security purposes. The five warships are KRI Surabaya, KRI Ahmad Yani, KRI Weling, KRI Pulau Rimau and KRI Singa.
'We are preparing the possible arising of security threats during the event,' Ruslian said during a joint rehearsal conducted by the military and police at Puputan Margarana field in Renon, Denpasar.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Michael Tene said on Monday that three government heads, namely The Philippines President Benigno Aquino III, Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and the Sultan of Brunei Darussalam Hassanal Bolkiah, had confirmed they would attend the event.
The three are the only state leaders invited by Indonesia to attend the forum.
'The Bali Democracy Forum is essentially a ministerial-level event. An exception was in 2012 when the forum was conducted like a summit and was attended by many heads of states to celebrate the forum's fifth anniversary,' Michael told The Jakarta Post.
Delegations from 51 participant countries as well as 68 international observers are expected to attend the annual event. Most, according to Michael, have already confirmed their attendance.
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Inside the City's Negotiations with the Police Union Documents Show Seattle's Progress, and Lack Thereof, on Accountability for Cops
james Anderson / istock
Concerned about police conduct? Want federally mandated reforms addressing excessive force and racially biased policing in Seattle to work? Then you'll want to familiarize yourself with the fine print in the city's latest proposed revision of its 80-page contract with the city's largest police union, the Seattle Police Officers' Guild (SPOG).
Lisa Daugaard, cochair of the Community Police Commission, likened the renegotiation of SPOG's contract to the "Super Bowl" of police accountability.
Hundreds of rank-and-file Seattle officers will be asked in the coming weeks to vote on an updated version of their contract—the product of 18 months of negotiations between SPOG and city officials. The union's board has approved the proposal, which would modify the existing contract and lay down the rules on pay, accountability, and performance for the next four years.
The negotiations can be confidential, by state law. Fourteen pages of internal documents obtained by The Stranger, however, reveal what the city has offered the union and what police officers will be voting on.
Disciplinary Appeals
One of the most consequential proposed changes is a reconfiguration of the Disciplinary Review Board (DRB), a three-person tribunal consisting of two police officers and one arbitrator.
The DRB considers appeals of disciplinary decisions and has often overridden penalties imposed by the police chief. One notorious example was an attempt to fire Officer Donald George in 2007 after he angrily slammed a teenager's head into a patrol car seat. The DRB reinstated George.
Local and national experts had pushed for the DRB to be abolished.
"Giving peer officers a voice in discipline is just offensive," said Samuel Walker, a policing consultant. "Discipline is a management prerogative."
But according to the documents, the city has proposed heavily modifying the DRB, not abolishing it.
Under the new contract, the DRB would be reduced to a one-person arbitrator selected on a case-by-case basis from an agreed upon list of rotating professional labor arbitrators.
"This is a good sign," said Walker, though he cautioned that professional arbitrators are often reluctant to take strong stands for fear of alienating parties on either side.
Anne Levinson, a retired judge who serves as the city's official police accountability auditor, had recommended the DRB be replaced with a process using randomly selected hearing examiners—and that disciplinary appeal hearings be made open to the public.
The new contract would make the disciplinary hearings open only to "certain outside parties"—members of the Community Police Commission and a citizen observer appointed by the mayor. Ron Smith, president of SPOG, told The Stranger in 2014 he was happy to make the DRB hearings open to the public. It's unclear why the negotiated proposal falls short.
Civilian Oversight
The Seattle Police Department's watchdog agency, tasked with investigating citizen complaints, is the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA). But the OPA has long been hamstrung by the union contract, which required it to use only police officers as investigators, even though the agency is supposed to represent independent civilian oversight. OPA director Pierce Murphy, a civilian, faces mistrust from the community because, as he puts it, "'Why should the police be trusted to investigate themselves?"
A soft-spoken Jesuit who once trained to be a priest, Murphy came to Seattle in 2013. He is widely credited with turning things around at the once-troubled Boise Police Department, where he was able to hire civilian investigators.
In Seattle, Murphy has wanted to utilize a hybrid staff model, using both civilians and police. SPOG has directed a steady stream of vitriol at him in its internal newspaper. In January, it all but declared him an enemy of its members, calling him a "wolf in sheep's clothing." The editor of the newspaper claimed Murphy "has shown little regard for our contract and our rights," and that the department "has very little or next to no major misconduct."
Under the new proposed contract, the OPA would finally be allowed to hire civilians—but only for intake positions. Civilians, not members of the SPD, would interview people with complaints about the police at the first stage of the process. But there's a catch: The proposal would require whoever is hired to have "ten years of sworn experience," effectively limiting the pool of potential applicants to current and former cops. Murphy could not hire civilian oversight professionals like himself. The body of Murphy's staff would remain SPD officers: Police investigating themselves.
Murphy and his small staff still have six months to complete an investigation under the terms of the contract. If he misses the deadline, no discipline can be imposed on an officer.
Tweaks
Looking over the rest of the proposed tweaks to the contract, one wonders, "Why was that even in the contract to begin with?" (The city would no longer pay the SPOG president's salary, the police chief would be given discretion to promote any of the top five scorers on training exams instead of promoting solely on the basis of the exam score, the chief could delegate more responsibility to assistant chiefs when it comes to disciplinary decisions, and more.)
Campaign Zero, a national group that grew out of the Black Lives Matter movement, has analyzed police union contracts around the country. We shared the documents we obtained with Sam Sinyangwe, Campaign Zero's New York–based cofounder. The proposed SPOG contract still contains "many provisions that undermine accountability and are simply not present in many cities' contracts," said Sinyangwe after reviewing them.
On big-ticket items, Sinyangwe believes the city hasn't come up with the goods: "The statute of limitations on [OPA] investigations, allowing discipline to be challenged through arbitration, erasing records of written reprimands, etc.—at least 9 of the 100 largest US cities' contracts have none of these types of provisions (cities like Dallas, Denver, Fremont, Fresno, Nashville, Aurora), and many more have fewer of these provisions than Seattle."
He called the results of the city's negotiations "mediocre at best."
Sinyangwe's criticism stands in sharp contrast to statements from the mayor, police chief, and the Obama administration, which has been touting Seattle as a "national model" on police reform.
Mayor Ed Murray is said to be eager to conclude the Department of Justice consent decree and declare victory in the police-reform effort before running for reelection in 2017. The city council will also need to approve the new contract.
Murray, whose administration handled the negotiations, was endorsed and backed heavily by SPOG as a candidate. When SPOG president Smith blasted the Obama administration for allegedly waging a "war on cops" in a since-deleted Facebook rant last year, Murray condemned the comments.
That was a rare moment of discord between the police union and the mayor. | {
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When I proposed that Republicans plan to use their structural advantage this election cycle to claim a mandate to destroy Obamacare, no matter how much or little Obamacare actually helps them in the November Senate elections, I was met with howls of mockery and derision from people who must now pretend to be unaware that there was a Democratic landslide in 2008 -- and that everyone who follows politics seriously has known 2014 would be a rough year for Democrats since Obama's first election.
One of those people is Dan McLaughlan, better known to political twitter as the smart but at times acerbic conservative @baseballcrank.
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Over the weekend he wrote this post, which I believe was reprinted on the front page of the conservative site Red State, citing the fact that Obamacare's poll numbers are indeed underwater, to refute my argument that the GOP strategy is to run on Obamacare irrespective of the advantage it confers. They're probably going to win a bunch of seats no matter what they center their campaign around, so why not center it around the issue on which they hope to make the biggest imprint in 2015 and beyond?
His response isn't entirely a non sequitur -- I should've been more clear about the fact that Obamacare isn't shaping up to be some major Democratic asset. So it's not as if Republicans have no other political rationale for making the strategic choice they've made. I think a fair way to put it is that running against Obamacare is better than running on nothing at all, but that's actually a binary choice they've made for themselves this cycle.
However, if conservatives are being honest, they need to first acknowledge that -- all issues aside -- the 2014 map is vastly friendlier to Republicans than Democrats, and argue from there. Do they really think that absent Obamacare, Democrats would be sitting pretty? Or that a better rollout would've changed the map? Do they think Obamacare will be the difference between zero (or a couple) Senate pickups and the six or more they need to control the Senate? It's entirely feasible to me that Republicans will retake the Senate in 2014, and even that Obamacare might account for the margin. But I have yet to hear many reasoned arguments for any of those individual propositions on the right. All I hear are fundamentally dishonest arguments that wish the structural advantage out of existence.
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And given last night's special election results in Florida's 13th district, I don't expect that to change any time soon.
The short version is that Republicans ran hard against Obamacare in this district and won. Dave Jolly beat Alex Sink 48.5-46.7. At an extremely simplistic level Jolly's victory vindicates the anti-Obamacare campaign, because he ran against Obamacare and won. It's also bad news for Democrats because though it doesn't prove Obamacare's a big liability (and it may in fact be one), it's consistent with the idea.
At a more nuanced level, of course, the picture's much less clear, and though it would be unwise of Democrats to convince themselves that the Republican strategy has been entirely vindicated and start freaking out, they should be clear-eyed about the implications, which are very hard to identify, and would've been hard to identify even if Sink had won narrowly.
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Looking at this race in isolation, you have to disentangle a bunch of connected factors to suss out how much impact Obamacare had. First, start from the fact that this historically GOP-leaning district went very narrowly for Obama in November 2012. Then correct for the fact that the special election took place in March 2014, no Obama on the ticket, and Obamacare central to the GOP campaign. But then recorrect for the fact that a talented Libertarian candidate in this elderly district probably siphoned more votes away from Sink than from Jolly (though that's unclear as well). Add in subjective candidate quality critiques, fundraising, counterfactuals and so on and so on, and it's suddenly extremely difficult to say how much narrower Sink's defeat would have been were it not for Obamacare -- or if Obamacare was truly decisive.
Isolating an "Obamacare effect" is pretty complex, and anyone claiming today that the Obamacare effect was huge or obviously decisive is probably peddling snake oil.
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But still, I'm persuadable that such an effect exists. And even if the "Obamacare effect" was only 1 percent in FL-13 -- that is, Sink would've lost anyhow, but by a smaller margin -- that's a fairly ominous snapshot for vulnerable Democratic senators who are defending their seats in states Obama lost by wide margins, not just states he won narrowly. A 1-percent effect in FL-13 might be amplified in more conservative parts of the country and translate into a significantly larger effect in states like Arkansas and Louisiana.
But Arkansas, Louisiana and every other contested Senate election isn't happening in March. It's not sufficient to note that Republicans gave their Obamacare strategy a test drive in FL-13 without noting that they did it during the rollout of Obamacare, which has been disruptive and at times downright embarrassing. I know conservatives like to believe they can play this one-note symphony for eight straight months, all the way to a resounding November crescendo, but there's little evidence that this issue is paying off significantly for Republicans now, let alone that it will prove so durable. And even if it paid off measurably in March, it could still fall apart as frustration with the rollout and cancellations subsides, and Republicans begin grappling with what to do about constituents who are enjoying new benefits.
Maybe that's totally wrong. Maybe Sink owes her defeat to a number of factors including Obamacare, and that particular factor will map neatly onto all races, spelling big, big trouble for Democrats in redder states and districts.
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But the folks positioning themselves to claim an anti-ACA mandate in November likewise ought to reckon with the possibility that the "Obamacare effect" isn't as large as they'd hoped, could shrink, and won't necessarily be decisive even in seats that Democrats lose narrowly. That the pendulum's swinging back from 2008, and Obamacare's possibly nudging it a bit -- but nudges don't constitute mandates.
I'm not holding my breath, though. | {
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The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
The Free to Play market continues to be a major attractor to fans and developers alike. Each year, we hear big numbers being thrown around early in a title’s lifespan. However, one area that isn’t discussed as much is player retention despite how important it is. Free to play game design suffers from a major game design issue that anyone interested in developing their own game must come to terms with.
Short Term Success:
F2P design, whether it’s on mobile or PC, has always had one major advantage — An engaging core gameplay loop. The market knows exactly how to create an experience to pull people in.
If you’ve played any F2P title in this decade, then you’ve seen the same kinds of tactics used. These games start out with you earning rewards left and right, introducing all the mechanics in a pleasing way, and setting you up to see what the progression model looks like.
The first hour or so of playing a F2P game is all about getting you invested in it. This is where the design is at its best, and hooking consumers to start playing it. For new and casual players, they’re going to log in every day for a few minutes, earn some rewards, and then return to it the next day.
The rapid fire sense of achievement is meant to push players through the early game while providing progression. The plan is to get someone hooked on the game before any “fun pain” elements are introduced, or the grinding for mid to late game content begins.
Unfortunately, the focus on such a short gameplay loop is where we see the cracks appear in long term engagement.
Riding that Treadmill:
The short gameplay loop that attracts gamers has a limit, and we can see that when we get to the late-game of a F2P. One of the biggest differences between traditional MMO/Games as a Service vs. F2P design has to do with the end/late game. We’re no longer talking about people who are only playing a game for a few minutes each day, but those who are invested in the title.
They are both potentially the ones who will spend money and the ones that are the hardest to please. Trying to keep people engaged at the endgame has been a constant struggle for any MMO developer. Some developers go the route of continuing to raise the level cap to try and keep people entertained; others just add in more content at the level cap.
The problem that any game designer knows is that you can never have enough content to satisfy the endgame players. What’s worse is if you are still developing new content, and everyone is getting bored with your base game.
From a MMO or traditional game standpoint, there is always room to grow the content. The problem for F2P games is that you can’t stretch a short gameplay loop too far. Eventually, even the most harden fans will run out of things to do and reasons to stay. Due to that fear, it leads many F2P designers to do the worst thing: making the game annoying to play.
The Fun Stops Here:
In the first section we talked about fun pain, or the act of making the game harder to play to convince someone to spend money to get around it. Just about every F2P game I’ve looked at has a period in the mid to late game where it becomes painful to keep playing.
This is when the progression of the title slows down to a crawl, any upgrades will be time-consuming or costly, and the frustration sets in. Some developers use fun pain as a means of trying to motivate people to spend money to not deal with it. Other times we see the use of fun pain to slow down the playerbase if the endgame content hasn’t been developed yet.
Fun pain elements slow down the progression, but are never looked at as good design
The problem is that this ends up backfiring for obvious reasons: Making your game worse for your most hardcore fans tends to piss them off.
This is where the issue of retention comes in with F2P games and how having one good month doesn’t mean anything if you can’t keep growing.
Having a million play your game may be a great launch, but if that number drops to less than 100K, you’re going to be in trouble.
The problem is that most mobile developers don’t have the luxury of designing brand new systems or elements like we see in World of Warcraft or Warframe. This is where we get into the big problem with just focusing on a short-term gameplay loop.
Where to Grow:
For any game that wants to last, you need to think about your core audience and what they’re going to do. Remember, your core fans aren’t going to be playing your game for minutes at a time, but are invested in playing it. Launching a game with no plans for an end/late game is setting your game up to fail. Likewise, making your game un-enjoyable for them is another way to quickly kill your community.
Some developers and fans may argue that the fun pain or wall is set up as a way to separate the casual fans from the core/hardcore, but that’s not the job of the design to do.
This is why most games that have succeeded in the long-term have gone one of two routes. The first one is a content focus — delivering on a somewhat regular schedule brand new things to do that change the scope of the game. Payday 2, Warframe, and Team Fortress 2 are all examples of this form of Games as a Service.
The content that gets added tends to focus on the mid to endgame, but that hasn’t stopped these developers from changing how the game is played for all players involved via the systems. Going this route means that you are committed to this form of content, and the game will essentially die when you decide enough is enough.
With that said, the other form of content that is more sustainable, and less time consuming to make, is a community focus. The community essentially is creating the content via PvP-styled play. This can be as simple as having “clan battles”, to having a full-on competitive aspect with world rankings and such.
As an advantage, the short gameplay loops of F2P games can be transitioned into PvP without a lot of work, as the quick plays won’t take that long per match. As long as the community remains stable or growing, there should always be someone available to play against.
games with continued support enter a never-ending battle for more content
The disadvantage with this approach is that you are betting your game on the community continuing to provide user generated content. This can either lead to your game growing, or entering a downward spiral of people leaving because they can’t find anyone to play.
It’s important to remember that even if you focus on the community as your end game content, you still need to be putting out regular updates and keeping the game from growing stale. As we’ve seen with games like Hearthstone, it’s a never-ending battle to keep the Meta from becoming fixed.
Thinking Long-Term:
It’s impossible to predict at the start of a new game’s launch just how well it will be received by consumers; not every game is going to be the next Fortnite. However, that doesn’t mean you can ignore aspects of your game’s design.
Thinking about your game at the high-level is a great way to improve your casual play, because you want to see people go from casual players to core fans. If you’re just repeating the same exact thing from start to finish, you’re not going to be able to keep people engaged when they realize that there’s nothing else to your game.
Besides the games mentioned here, can you think of mobile and F2P games that have managed to sustain themselves with continued support? | {
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Oh meme dad I'm sure you know where this is going
102 shares | {
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President Donald Trump’s “hire American” economy has secured record low unemployment for the country’s most vulnerable workers: high school dropouts.
In the month of July, high school dropouts 25-years-old and over enjoyed the lowest unemployment rate ever since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the data in 1992.
The unemployment rate in July for high school dropouts stood at 5.1 percent, the lowest on record, further depicting an economy where Americans are increasingly reintegrated into the workforce rather than businesses importing low-skilled foreign workers to take blue collar U.S. jobs.
Trump’s economic model has been to depart from the Washington, D.C.-imposed cheap labor economy where businesses readily import low-skilled foreign workers to take bottom line jobs in the American economy.
Instead, the Trump model has been to tighten the labor market — partially through increased immigration enforcement — asking businesses to hire Americans who have been marginalized from the workforce. This economic model has secured higher wages for blue collar American workers as there is less downward pressure on their hourly salaries from mass unskilled, illegal immigration.
As Breitbart News most recently reported, Trump’s high wage, hire American economy has opened new job opportunities for Americans with disabilities.
"Increasing job opportunities for Americans with disabilities comes as the Trump administration has increased enforcement against businesses hiring cheap, illegal alien workers rather than legal residents and U.S. citizens." https://t.co/8Hqltco783 — John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) August 1, 2018
The tight labor market has benefited regions of the Rust Belt as well. In central and western Wisconsin, wages have risen by nearly four percent, as Breitbart News reported. Meanwhile, retirees have been reintegrated back into the workforce.
Breitbart News has also reported extensively on how the tight labor market has brought new job opportunities for Americans with disabilities and helped lower the demographic group’s unemployment rate.
There has also been history-making wage growth for American workers in the construction industry, the garment industry, for workers employed at small businesses, black Americans, and restaurant workers. The tight labor market has also secured higher wages for overtime workers and high-paying, coveted white-collar jobs for American teenagers. Most recently, Breitbart News reported that the construction industry has had to recruit women to take jobs at higher wages rather than hiring illegal aliens. A Chick-Fil-A in California has even raised wages to $18 an hour to retain workers. | {
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Yesterday, I was watching a video clip of the 2011 Aspen Institute debate between Wendy Kopp and Diane Ravitch. In a final effort to defend corporate reform, Kopp tells the audience, “I encourage everyone to see for yourself, study for yourself… New Orleans….”
I intend to take Kopp up on her offer in this post.
I have written this piece with a particular audience in mind: Those in other states who are considering following what they think is “model reform” in New Orleans. They have heard the hype and are seriously considering investing in a lie. In this post, I will show the reality that is the so-called “New Orleans Miracle.” It is no miracle at all. It is only a “sleight of media.” An illusion. A farce.
The New Orleans Miracle is sand in the mouths of those who would drink from its mirage. Never forget it.
Nevertheless, it has become extremely popular reformerspeak to talk about the “success” of New Orleans education. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is using supposed New Orleans Recovery School District (RSD-NO) success as a platform for his obvious 2016 bid for president. While in Virginia this month, however, Jindal was confronted with the truth. Yet in true reformer fashion, Jindal brushes the truth to the side:
Jindal said 77 percent of students in New Orleans were attending failing schools before Katrina. That’s been reduced to 29 percent, he said.
However, New Orleans schools run by the Recovery School District still have a D grade on average while those outside of New Orleans received an F in the latest round of grades released in October.
“We’re not where we want to be but have made great progress in seven years,” Jindal said. [Emphasis added.]
Of course, Louisiana Superintendent John White must also promote the lie that is Recovery School District success. In this Louisiana Public Broadcasting clip, John White refers to the RSD as “those extraordinary successes.”
The ploy of blatantly ignoring the truth and drilling a lie until the public believes it is not new to corporate reform. It’s just that reformers do it so well and are so faithful to the tactic.
They will find this post unpalatable.
I have been doing a lot of research, examination and confrontation regarding the “model” reforms in Louisiana over the past several months. My goal here is to synthesize what I have learned in order to provide solid proof of the corruption and fraud behind the “RSD success” myth.
I would like to begin with the year 2003.
RSD Beginnings and the “Gift” of Hurricane Katrina
In 2003, the Louisiana legislature created the Recovery School District under then-Governor Kathleen Blanco. With this May 2003 law, schools that did not meet “minimum academic standards” were to be taken over by the state. The first school to have such a fate was Pierre Capdau School (New Orleans) in 2004.
More to come about Pierre Capdau School.
Two other events of note happened in 2003. First, the Broad Foundation published this “Leadership Manifesto”” whereby corporate reformer Eli Broad and others declared that noneducator leadership “talent” should be brought into the public school arena, and that this “talent” should have “sweeping authority over the personnel and operations of the school.” (The Manifesto was already a chapter in a book published in 1999, Better Teachers, Better Schools, and was now being promoted as a corporate reform idea ready for implementation.)
(In the previous year, Broad established his Superintendents Academy, a nonaccredited, secretive place where ambitious ladder-climbers outside of education might enter the profession and be placed into key administrative roles with virtually unchecked authority to create havoc change.)
The third item in 2003 worthy of note was that a young Bobby Jindal had accepted at least $70,000 from ALEC corporations in his first bid for governor. He lost.
Then came Hurricane Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina was a gift to corporate reform. Officially striking on August 29, 2005, Katrina destroyed not only New Orleans, but much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Seven years later, it still affects me to write about it.
In 2010, U.S. Secretary of Education and blatant reformer Arne Duncan insensitively referred to Hurricane Katrina as “the best thing to happen to the education system of New Orleans.”
From the perspective of Bobby Jindal and the corporate reformers, Duncan was right. As it turns out, many Louisianans were disillusioned with Democratic Governor Blanco’s response to the incredible crisis presented by Katrina. I remember hearing friends lament that “Jindal would have handled this better.” So, when Jindal ran for governor a second time in 2007, it was clear he had won before the final vote had been counted.
In his 2007 campaign, the reformer rhetoric was beginning to show (merit pay; “improve education options”), but not completely, as Jindal also openly advocated “competitively compensating teachers” aside from merit pay and “attracting and retaining qualified educators.”
But back to Katrina.
In November 2005, the Louisiana legislature passed Act 35, which transferred some 100 plus “low performing” schools over to RSD. The concentration of these schools was in New Orleans. When Orleans Parish Schools personnel returned following Katrina, they were shocked to discover the almost complete takeover of their school system. In short, they were no longer employed according to Orleans Parish Schools. A district judge later ruled in favor of wrongful termination of Orleans Parish teachers represented in a class-action suit in November 2012.
The Louisiana legislature enabled corporate reform to sweep in (hence a new meaning to “sweeping reforms”) while a community, indeed a state and even a region, were still shaken from utter devastation. Arne Duncan celebrated. And ALEC waited. Jindal was coming.
When I was searching for a teaching position upon my return to New Orleans from Indiana in 2007, I noticed on the internet this new district in New Orleans named Recovery School District. They were accepting applications for numerous positions, from administration to support personnel. I applied for both administrative and teaching positions. I received no offers to interview. I did not know then what I know now: My resume had no hint of corporate reform, and corporate reformers were those being sought to fill RSD positions.
RSD had assumed most of what was once Orleans Parish Schools (OPS); yes, OPS did still exist, but it was only a fraction of what it once was. As for RSD, it rapidly became the reformer ideal of abounding charters; RSD was also hailed by reformers as “an epic experiment in education reform.” In September 2010, then-State Superintendent Paul Pastorek and then-RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas (currently facing possible ouster in Bridgeport, CT) declared RSD a “success,” though they presented no concrete evidence to support their assertion, as noted here:
In 2003, the Louisiana Legislature created the Recovery School District (RSD) to rehabilitate failed schools. While not always the most popular mechanism, it has become clear across the state and country that in order to ensure every child has the chance to attend a great school, political leaders must identify persistently low-performing schools, remove them temporarily from local control, and implement proven reform practices and turnaround strategies that yield dramatic results in the school. [Emphasis added.]
Before the institution of letter grades in 2011 (another ALEC creation, featured in their 2010 Education task Force mailouts), a star rating system was used to rate schools. In order to achieve “three stars,” a school needed a score of 100 points. The average score for RSD schools was 60.9 points. Ignoring this evidence, Pastorek and Vallas simply declared victory.
Remember, that is what reformers do: Ignore the evidence and declare victory.
The Advent of John White, and Bobby Jindal’s Second Term
In 2010, Jindal was nearing the end of his first term as governor, and he was keeping rhetoric toned down regarding his plans to follow the ALEC playbook and usher in “sweeping educational reforms” should he be reelected in 2011. Jindal did begin campaigning early, in March 2011, following a seven-point drop in the polls. Jindal was perceived as a governor who rode in on opportunity (disfavor with democratic leadership during Katrina) then offered no “follow-through”:
[After Jindal’s 2007 election,] disillusionment settled in quick. His “blue ribbon” ethics reform was marred by ineffective enforcement and his interest in state policy rode constantly in the backseat behind his national political ambitions. His leadership was defined not by its boldness or its ability to transform; but by its caution, his unwillingness to take meaningful risks even in pursuit of desirable policy outcomes. He stood on the right side of many issues but seemed unwilling to push too hard, and subsequently accomplished too little of substance. At the beginning of 2011, Jindal was looking like a status quo governor, an uninteresting “anti-tax” cookie-cutter Republican who presided more than he led. [Emphasis added.]
The article continues to describe “some change in Jindal”:
In the past couple of weeks, Jindal has emerged as the governor many of us had hoped he would be – bold and transformative. [Emphasis added.]
“Bold and transformative.” Classic reformer words.
Prior to his re-election, Jindal brought in John White to be superintendent of RSD in September 2011. White happened to be one of those “talented” noneducators groomed via TFA and the Broad Superintendents Academy. (I cannot bring myself to write that White’s two or three years as a token TFA teacher earn him the title of “educator.”) White was trained by corporate reformer Joel Klein and posited in New York under Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a deputy chancellor (duties included ignoring parental concerns, pushing charters and online education, and campaigning to close schools as he was waiting in line to “be a leader.”). When White left New York for New Orleans, New York parents were relieved. Disconnected from NY parents’ perceptions, Arne Duncan hailed White as a “visionary leader who has done great things in New York….”
Louisiana had no idea where a second term with Bobby Jindal would take it. His re-election was not so much due to public favor as it was a default to having no clear, strong democratic opponent on the ballot coupled with Jindal’s strong ALEC ties. Jindal would open fire on the education profession (and health care and retirement, to name a few) in the following legislative session, promoting (and passing, due to a eerily compliant, ALEC-purchased legislature) a number of ALEC model bills, including those related to education reform (Act 1, Teacher Tenure and Evaluation, and Act 2, Vouchers).
On the ballot with Jindal in the October 2011 election were eight seats for the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). Controlling BESE was pivotal for Jindal, as it would ensure him carte blanche for any “reforms” he wished to institute. In my school district, teachers and administrators were well aware of the importance of the BESE elections.
What we did not know was that the BESE board had already been purchased. The command for assisting Bobby Jindal with the BESE elections is evident in this email from Foundation for Excellence in Education’s (FEE) Patricia Levesque, as she advises ALEC-entrenched, Jeb-Bush-controlled superintendents group, Chiefs for Change, on helping Bobby Jindal with the BESE elections since BESE is pivotal for approving Jindal’s choice for new state superintendent, none other than recent New York hire John White. In her email, Levesque emphasizes that Jeb Bush has put his support behind Jindal’s choice of White:
An article on state board of education races– that will impact selection of next chief in Louisiana. Gov. Jindal wants John White as next state chief. Governor Bush is lending his support/endorsement to the candidates Gov. Jindal is supporting for the State Board of Ed.
Patricia
And so, it came to pass:
Last fall (in 2011), a coterie of extremely wealthy billionaires, among them New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned the races for unpaid positions on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) into some of the most expensive in the state’s history. Seven pro-education “reform” candidates for the BESE outraised eight candidates endorsed by the teacher’s unions by $2,386,768 to $199,878, a ratio of nearly twelve to one. In just one of these races, the executive director of Teach for America Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta, Kira Orange Jones, outspent attorney Louella Givens, who was endorsed by the state’s main teacher’s unions, by more than thirty-four to one: $472,382 to $13,815. [Emphasis added.]
By November 2011, Jindal was re-elected; BESE was effectively purchased, and in January 2011, John White was installed as Louisiana State Superintendent of Education:
Why would out-of-state billionaires care about Louisiana’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education? The state board must approve the governor’s nominee for the powerful state superintendent of education by a two-thirds majority, and the 2007–11 board would have been unlikely to approve Jindal’s nominee, John White. White had been in Louisiana for less than a year at the time, after coming from New York City to head Louisiana’s Recovery School District, which the BESE directly supervises. A Teach for America alum, White had previously spent five years working as a deputy chancellor for the New York City Department of Education under Michael Bloomberg. Louisiana’s education superintendent administers the state’s educational system, but of particular interest to wealthy donors, the superintendent recommends which schools should be eligible for accreditation and state support to the BESE, which ultimately approves. In the past decade or so, that has meant that the state superintendent and BESE discern which charter or voucher schools are eligible to provide instruction in the state of Louisiana. [Emphasis added.]
In the end, it’s all about the money, and the money wins. A corporate reform perfect storm.
Once placed by purchased BESE into the position of state superintendent, White became one of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change members, a national posse to promote corporate reform at Jeb Bush’s bidding. (Former Louisiana Superintendent Paul Pastorek is a member emeritus, as well as a member of the Broad Center Board of Directors, as in Broad Superintendents Academy, as in the place where White spend weekends earning his flimsy “credential.” The reformer web is interwoven.)
Notable BESE Conflicts of Interest
Back to BESE:
Two notable BESE members are Chas Roemer and Kira Orange-Jones. They have astounding conflicts of interest as BESE board members. Let’s begin with Roemer.
The Roemers
Chas Roemer, newly-installed in January 2013 as BESE president, is a fount of idiocy when he speaks. Consider the following statements, all taken from this February 2013 newspaper article:
“We should set people free and then hold them accountable” (said in support of the Neville charter in Monroe, LA). [Emphasis added.] (“Freedom”: Nothing else matters; do what you want. “Accountability”: High test scores are all that matter. Build your own scaffold. BESE/DOE will provide the noose.)
Roemer said charter schools are held to strict accountability standards through the state’s ability to revoke charters after three years if the school is failing. [Emphasis added.] (An open invitation for charter school fraud: Milk the system; take the millions, then move on in three years without repercussions.)
“If we don’t get our business straight, then we run the risk of losing our customer.” (As though public schools are businesses where students, the “customers,” can opt out of compulsory education. Roemer said this in support of vouchers already declared unconstitutional for using public school funds, and that fewer than 2% of students chose to access this year.) [Emphasis added.]
Roemer is vocal about his support of charter schools, and despite an astounding and glaring conflict of interest because of his sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley:
…LouisianaVoice inquired as to the legality of Baton Rouge BESE member Chas Roemer’s voting on matters involving charter schools that come before the board. Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and has already been directed by the Ethics Board not to speak at BESE meetings on behalf of matters concerning charter schools or to talk to BESE members about charter school matters because of her brother’s membership on the board.
Chas Roemer, however, has consistently voted on matters concerning charter schools and in some cases, even made motions to approve or not approve certain agenda items concerning charter schools. [Emphasis added.]
And consider this article::
Roemer’s membership on BESE has been a source of rancor for groups opposing his unabated support for charter schools. Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS). The group advocates for expanding charter schools in the state and loosening restrictions on teacher tenure. In 2008, the state’s top ethics committee ruled Caroline Roemer cannot appear before BESE, but LAPCS is not restricted. Chas Roemer was not asked to recuse himself from hearings when LAPCS is present, though sections 1112 and 1120 of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics indicate that he should.
A look at BESE meeting minutes in January of 2011 reveals (PDF) Chas Roemer voted on renewing the charters of multiple charter schools (Type 5 Charter Schools) that are members of the charter school association his sister leads. Some of those include the McDonogh schools, which belong to the KIPP and Algiers charter school networks. [Emphasis added.]
The ethics board is apparently fine with Chas and Caroline’s connection, since Chas has been installed as not only a BESE member, but of late as BESE president, and is openly vocal in support of charters. Meanwhile, Caroline is still allowed to frequent BESE meetings, where one is allowed to use electronic devices to communicate during the meetings.
Caroline Roemer Shirley is also very much involved in the oft-referenced, dealings of one charter in particular, Lycee Francais, a French immersion charter that splintered from another combination Montessori/immersion school. Unlike most charters, Lycee Francais is authorized directly through BESE rather than RSD or Orleans. And Lycee Francais has a brief yet tumultuous history. The school has been steeped in turmoil, including failing to openly advertise its student openings; experiencing an $85,000 budget shortfall, using questionable admissions standards (very low percentage of minority students admitted); experiencing the abrupt resignation of its CEO; and suffering the suspected capriciousness of its board. The Lycee Francais board has retained the services of ALEC-member attorneys Adams and Reese in the wake of records requests.
John White is protecting this school. For example, when BESE member Lottie Beebe asked for a report on the school based upon concerns raised by her constituents, White brushed off the request (White also later excludes Beebe from this communication regarding his “assistance” to Lycee Francais). Read the previously-linked article to see how many times White ignores concerns over the operation of Lycee Francais. Finally, BESE does “direct White to look into the concerns.” In December 2012, the state had intervened and hired a consultant to oversee “swift” changes, including the hiring of a new CEO and changing the school’s board:
Roemer Shirley said board members were open to the intervention (John White’s directing the charter school operation via a hired consultant) , adding that it’s the first time she’s seen a charter authorizer step in this way. [Emphasis added.]
Since White/BESE is “charter authorizer,” is it not a conflict of interest for White to assist one charter school in particular with “succeeding” if as state superintendent he has not offered such “assistance” to other Louisiana charter schools?
In all of this, I cannot help but ask, why is BESE in charge of this school? Why the special treatment for Lycee Francais? Hiring attorneys in the wake of a records request? White’s snubbing Beebe’s request for a report on the school? The hiring of a consultant?
And keep in mind that Caroline Roemer Shirley is also promoting the false message that the Louisiana charter schools “are outperforming their non-charter school peers on student achievement”:
“Due to our state’s embrace of the charter school movement, Louisiana is one of a handful of states that is closing the achievement gap between African-American students and their white counterparts,” said Caroline Roemer Shirley, Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools. “Now that charter schools have proven their effectiveness at improving learning for African-American students, we need to continue to share how they’re achieving these academic successes with all public schools so the entire system improves.” [Emphasis added.]
I did mention that Lycee Francais is extremely racially unbalanced, did I not? How could Lycee Francais “close the achievement gap between African-American students and their white counterparts” when Lycee Francais is overwhelmingly white? As The New Orleans Imperative notes:
Latest Census results indicate that New Orleans’ population is approximately 60% black. 42% of New Orleans’ children live in poverty. If the goal of the charter school movement is to serve the communities in which the schools are located, why are there so few black children at Lycee Francais? Why are there no poor children at Lycee Francais? … It is clearly obvious the Lycee Francais has manipulated its enrollment practices with BESE approval to basically insure a white student population, which is not representative of New Orleans. [Emphasis added.]
Such unaddressed yet crucial issues. Yet Roemer Shirley ignores such issues and, like her reformer cronies, declares corporate reform victory.
Another bit of information worthy of note is that the controversial Lycee Francais makes absolutely no appearance on the 2012 school-level data offered by DOE.
In her praise of charter performance, Roemer Shirley does not include this Education Law Center caution offered regarding so-called “comparisons” of charter versus noncharter (traditional public school) performance:
…Some of these results [favoring charter schools] may be somewhat misleading. In particular, some of the benefits attributed to charter schools may actually be a result of study designs or due to differences in student bodies between charters and regular public schools. [Emphasis added.]
Though Roemer Shirley cites a Stanford study lauding charter performance, she is silent regarding the possibility that unusually high score gains might be the result of cheating (documents under Freedom of Information were just released under duress, so more on this to come). Also, Roemer Shirley is silent about school performance scores and cohort graduation rates, particularly of RSD, which advertises 12 traditional and 58 charter schools for New Orleans on its website. In the course of this post, I will discuss RSD school grades and graduation rates. They reveal that the so-called “achievement gap” has not moved and that the oft-pronounced RSD “success” is a fiction.
Orange-Jones
For now, let us turn our attention to the second BESE member I mentioned whose presence poses an incredible conflict of interest: Kira Orange-Jones.
Consider the following information regarding Orange-Jones’ campaign funding of her race for a BESE seat:
Why has nearly 25 percent (almost $60,000) of the more than $241,000 in campaign contributions to BESE candidate Kira Orange Jones come from out-of-state contributors? Why are more than one-third of her contributors from outside of Louisiana? Who are these people and why are they so concerned about who represents the New Orleans area and other surrounding parishes on the LOUISIANA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education? The reality is that the list of Orange Jones’ major contributors reads like a who’s who of Teach for America top brass. [Emphasis added.]
Why so much TFA support for Orange-Jones? Orange-Jones is the executive director of TFA’s Greater New Orleans office. Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu even campaigned for Orange-Jones (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoyLAgmU4ls) (This is the same Senator Landrieu who was connected to the earmarking of $2 million in federal funds for a Voyager Learning reading program, after Landrieu had received $80,000 from Voyager associates for her campaign.)
Like Chas Roemer, Kira Orange-Jones’ presence on BESE raises questions about a conflict of interest. However, the ethics board ruled in Orange-Jones’ favor, despite her title of TFA “executive director”:
The decision, which received unanimous support from the eight [ethics] board members at Friday’s meeting, hinged on arguments made by Orange Jones’ lawyer that she served more as a supervisor than a decision-maker for the nonprofit teaching organization, which has annually received approval for a $1 million contract with the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Attorney James Babst successfully argued that this arrangement allows Orange Jones to fit into a exemption carved out in previous rulings by the board allowing rank-and-file employees to serve on boards that have contractual relationships with their employer. The exemption should apply despite Orange Jones’ title of “executive director,” he said.
The argument in favor of Orange-Jones is that she has no “controlling interest” in TFA. There is no mention of the extravagant financial support Orange-Jones’ campaign received from high-ranking TFAers. It is the elephant in the ethics committee room. If Orange-Jones’ position on BESE carried only “rank and file” significance, why did she raise 34 times the money as her opponent if not for her ability to influence BESE in matters TFA and corporate reform?
And here is another elephant: John White, who pushed for approval of that $960,000 TFA grant in October 2012, is himself alumni of TFA and of Broad, a foundation where TFA President and Founder Wendy Kopp currently sits on the board. In fact, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan once sat on a Broad board. And Eli Broad himself contributed to Orange-Jones:
To support Orange Jones’s campaign against [Louella] Givens, Eli Broad, billionaire head of the education reform organization the Broad Foundation and a major trainer and placer of school superintendents, chipped in $5,000. [Emphasis added.]
Are we so foolish as to believe a “controlling interest” can only take the form of a direct route? Corporate reform specializes in laundered, indirect routes, in complex arrangements of favors begetting favors. Through White and Orange-Jones, Eli Broad himself is sitting on the BESE board.
John White’s Information Hiding Game
Even thought White and BESE approved a $960,000 grant for TFA in October 2012, White continues to withhold specifics regarding the degree of TFA presence in Louisiana’s schools. Why hide TFA? Is it possible that TFA is not the miracle it purports? Louisiana Voice’s Tom Aswell is pursuing Freedom of Information requests of DOE documents related to TFA specifics in Louisiana’s schools.
John White hides specifics because he knows that detailed information, even if it is a lie, can lead to probing and scrutiny, which can, in turn, unveil the truth. Take Tom Aswell’s request for emails concerning the justification for altering the DOE website. White said that he revised the website based upon complaints from users. Wanting to verify this, Aswell made a records request of White/DOE:
[We made requests for] a list of complaints about the Louisiana Department of Education’s web page that White said prompted his decision to revamp the page to its current unnavigable mish mash of a web page that is about as user friendly as a sidesaddle on a Hampshire hog.
What Aswell received after beginning legal proceedings for the information was as follows:
Because White made such a big production of the complaints he said he received about the old format of the department’s web page which led to the complete revamp of the page, we decided to call his bluff and ask for those complaints.
What we got instead of complaints about the old web page was a stream of complaints about the current format, including one writer who, in the email’s subject line wrote “YOUR NEWLY DESIGNED WEBSITE SUCKS,” and who then proceeded to chastise the department for the misspelling of “recieve.” (Yep, that’s the way your new DOE website spells receive.) “For crying out loud, USE YOUR SPELLCHECKER!” the Monroe critic wrote, adding, “Please correct this and make this site professional, not juvenile.”
Another wrote: “Many of your links lead to errors. Come on, man!”
“I am unable to locate information that I need to do my job. If we no longer have a website that is user friendly, what are we expected to do?” asked another.
Strangely, however, there were no complaints provided by White about the old web site even though he said the changes were made pursuant to “many complaints” about the old site. [Emphasis added.]
One of White’s ploys was to remove or make otherwise virtually unlocatable the DOE data on Louisiana’s schools.
After all, it is easier to proclaim the RSD miracle if no one can verify the fraud.
However, those trained in research develop an almost-instinctive habit of downloading and saving data files. We also actively seek to cross-reference questionable data files with other files (for example, cross-referencing state and federal data files; cross-referencing files posted for public use with those sent privately to administrators). And often, a beautiful exchange occurs in which we are able to distill truth from confusion.
The Truth Evident From the Data
The rest of this post I will devote to the distillation of quantitative truth.
I base the following discussion on several data files that I have saved. I have two 2012 district performance score/letter grade spreadsheets originating with LDOE, one made available to the public, and a second, sent to superintendents and BESE members. I also have two 2012 school performance score/letter grade spreadsheets: one public; the other, sent to admin/BESE.
(The data sets sent to admin/BESE are much clearer in their labeling of data. On the school-level data set made available to the public, labelings of RSD schools make it very difficult to determine which are RSD-NO and which are RSD-LA. However, the school-level data sent to admin/BESE has these schools obviously differentiated.)
I also have access to USDOE graduation cohort information (2007-11) for all participating schools in all parishes in Louisiana.
I have used the information available from these data files to audit and expound upon school information from the RSD website.
Thus, places like York County, Pennsylvania, and other cities nationwide that are considering emulating the “New Orleans miracle of school reform” might be truly informed that no miracle exists. It is a complete and utter fraud.
As of February 21, 2013, on its website, RSD advertises 12 traditional schools and 58 charter schools in New Orleans, for a total of 70 schools. However, RSD only offers names and physical locations for 67 schools. Furthermore, three “schools,” G.W. Carver College and two named G.W. Carver Prep, have the same physical address. On both school-level data sets, there is only one G.W. Carver, labeled simply as “G. W. Carver High School.” This means that either G.W. Carver is a set of splinter schools, or there is really only one G.W. Carver. Also, the RSD designation “N O Accel” appears to be ReNew Accel (City Park) and ReNew Accel (West Bank), though RSD offers only one physical address named “N O Accel.”
If RSD counts G.W. Carver as three schools and N O Accel as two schools, this equals 70 schools.
One school, Nelson Elementary, was omitted from the RSD website but had 2012 data available on the DOE school-level spreadsheet. Therefore, it appears that RSD has a possible 71 schools.
The 2012 LDOE school-level spread sheets (both admin and public versions) account for only 60 schools (including both ReNew schools). Thus, RSD has not offered information on the physical addresses for potentially three of its schools, and LDOE has not even included a hint of data on 9 of the 70 (not including Nelson, which RSD “forgot” to include) supposed RSD schools (listed below).
Making schools difficult to locate and track is a reformer trademark.
If some of these “missing” schools are “shadow schools”, those where student test scores are added to other, “visible” schools in the district in order to boost scores at a given school, it isn’t working for RSD.
The following schools are listed as existing on the RSD website yet have no information available on the LDOE 2012 school-level spreadsheet:
Two of the three “G.W. Carver” schools; Cohen College Prep; Craig, Crescent; Hughes; McDonough High (the recent focus of Oprah’s schemes); McDonough 42; Net.
But enough about what is nebulous and not listed. There is enough of substance in what is accounted for on 2012 LDOE school-level data to debunk the repeatedly-perpetrated myth of the RSD Miracle.
Let us begin from the beginning.
Both the current RSD website and the 2012 LDOE school-level spreadsheet include information on the very first RSD school, Pierre Capdau.
Pierre Capdau, the very first school to be assumed by RSD in 2004, remains a state-run, RSD-NO school. After eight years, Pierre Capdau has a D for its 2012 letter grade. I have never heard any reformer boast of the “miracle” that is Pierre Capdau. It has not succeeded according to the reformer-determined definition of “success.” Pierre Capdau has never been “transformed” as a result of its state takeover.
That right there ought to give pause to those tempted by the veneer of a New Orleans Miracle.
There is much more:
Of the 60 state-run RSD schools (59 from the RSD website plus omitted Nelson) included on the DOE 2012 school-level data spreadsheet (both admin and public versions), none received an A as a school letter grade.
Of 60 state-run RSD schools, only 6 received a B in 2012. That’s 10%.
One RSD school, Gentilly Terrace, received a T, meaning no grade this year. A free pass.
According to Jindal’s and the State of Louisiana’s definition of a failing school, the remainder of the RSD schools given letter grades are failing. That’s 90%.
In 2012, 5 state-run RSD schools received a C.
In 2012, 19 state-run RSD schools received a D.
In 2012, 29 state-run RSD schools received an F.
Given that RSD is overwhelmingly comprised of charter schools (83%, based upon information available on the RSD website), I think it safe to write that Caroline Roemer Shirley’s praise of unqualified charter school success in New Orleans is unfounded.
When reality reflects poorly on a reformer with access to data, he/she could always try to, as John White often says, “tweek”:
On the district-level spreadsheet sent to admin, White/LDOE created a nonsense district score whereby RSD-NO’s district score of D was “averaged” with Orleans (which had an A for a district score). This produced an amalgam of C.
(This “fake” C has a numeric “grade” of 93.7, a number that has been used by New Schools for New Orleans [NSNO] to “prove” New Orleans success in this April 2013 report. It is a lie. Orleans Parish has an A that was combined with RSD-NO’s D to get this 93.7.)
Good enough to reduce the glory of Orleans, but still not good enough to make RSD-NO look “good enough.”
Not quite the “tweeked” success.
Even though this post focuses on RSD, I would like to offer a word about Orleans Parish Schools. Of the 17 Orleans schools listed on the DOE school-level spreadsheet, five are labeled as magnet schools. Seven schools received an A; 5 received a B.
Orleans is skimming the better students. It’s that simple. A true litmus test of charter “success” is the presence of whole-district/region charter success. Anything else is a lie. Spotty “successful” schools among predominantly “unsuccessful” ones only betrays the division of academic “haves” and “have nots.” Orleans Parish Schools is an island in the midst of the sea of RSD-NO failure.
Reformers like John White and former BESE member Leslie Jacobs will attempt to conceal the unsuccessful reality by combining it with the “skimmed” success. In Jacobs’ case, she wrote an op/ed claiming that the “achievement gap” was “closed” in 2011, based upon data from the U.S. Department of Education on cohort graduation rates. In my response to Jacobs, I highlight the truth based upon the reality of the USDOE graduation data. Rather than rewrite my findings, I will simply copy them below. They provide reinforcement for the truth of RSD failure:
As to Jacobs’ shining moment, her ultimate point of the article, that “in New Orleans, 76.5% of our students graduated on time”:
First, one must consider the unclear term, “New Orleans.” This is the name of a city, not a school district. There is Orleans Parish Schools, and its 2010-11 graduation rate was 93.5%. This begs the question: Why focus on 76.5% as the evidence of “New Orleans success” instead of Orleans Parish Schools’ 93.5%? Furthermore, Orleans Parish received an “A” on its 2012 district report card. Why not highlight the achievements of Orleans Parish Schools? Jacobs cites “the failure of New Orleans Public Schools” later in her writing. Why not note a beautiful recovery (pun intended)?
The answer: The success of Orleans Parish Schools only serves to underscore the failure of the state-run counterpart, RSD-NO.
Back to that 76.5% of “our students graduating on time”:
LDOE does not report a district percentage for RSD-NO 2010-11 graduation rate. How Jacobs arrived at 76.5% is a mystery to me. Perhaps she took the overall 2,051 graduates “in New Orleans” and divided by the number of 2010-11 students classified as seniors “in New Orleans.” Doing so would certainly paint a fairer picture than does the detailed account posted on the LDOE website for RSD-NO (I also included 2012 school letter grades and scores where available): RSD-NO 2010-11 Graduation Rates (percentage) and 2011-12 School Letter Grades/Scores
Thurgood Marshall Early College High School – 87.8% – C – 97.9
Abramson Science and Technology Charter School – 82.1%*
O. P. Walker Senior High School – 74.6% – B – 108.9
Algiers Technology Academy – 67.9% – D – 85.5
– D – 85.5 Joseph S. Clark Senior High School – no score – T** – 55.8
Walter L. Cohen High School – 53.6% – F – 45.5
– F – 45.5 John McDonough Senior High School – 45.6%
Rabouin Career Magnet High School – no score
Sarah Towles Reed Senior High School – 49.6% – F – 47.6
– F – 47.6 Schwarz Alternative School – no score
G. W. Carver High School – 55.7% – F – 46.4
F – 46.4 Excel Academy – no score
Hope Academy – no score
New Orleans Career Academy – no score
Sophie B. Wright Institute of Academic Excellence – no score – D – 78.9
*Abramson’s school code (300003) is currently assigned to a school named Lake Area New Tech. The 2012 school grade and score for Lake Area New Tech is F 59.4.
**Exempt from a letter grade this year.
I think it is fair to say that Ms. Jacobs’ enthusiasm at the “closing of the achievement gap” is undeniably premature. When one observes that actual graduation rates for the RSD-NO schools that have been assigned such a number, there is quite a gap. Three of the eight schools with scores are above the state 2010-11 graduation rate average of 70.9%; however, the remaining five are below the state average, with half, four of the eight, woefully below average.
What these results do show is the effective academic segregation of a school district. [Emphasis added.]
This evidence does not support Jacobs’ assertion of a “game changer for the city.”
It is worthy to note that three of the schools with low graduation rates highlighted above, Carver, Cohen, and Reed, have students actively speaking out nationally regarding the need for “fairness and justice in public schools across New Orleans.” Such desperation in its student body does not become a “miracle school district.” However, this behavior can be expected from students tired of being pawns in a chess game that says “miracle” but is “sham.”
Jacobs also writes that 39.1% of “New Orleans pubic school graduates” qualified for TOPS. The NSNO April 2013 report also cites this “gain.” It, too, is a lie:
This statistic (39.1%) comes from page 31 of the Cowen Institute 2012 analysis of New Orleans schools; Ms. Jacobs fails to mention that this 39% is for the subgroup of Orleans Parish Public School charter schools and not the rate for New Orleans schools overall.
A Closing Word
The school- and district-level data presented in this post unequivocally demonstrates that the state-run RSD is hardly a miracle. It should be an embarrassment to any reformer insisting otherwise. And it should come as no wonder why RSD doesn’t even mention school letter grades on its website.
The history of the state-run RSD in New Orleans is one of opportunism and deceit, of information twisting and concealing, in order to promote a slick, corporate-benefitting, financially-motivated agenda. It is certainly not “for the children.”
It is very easy for corporate reform to stand in front of the media and proclaim a New Orleans miracle. Bobby Jindal is doing it. So are John White, Wendy Kopp, Leslie Jacobs, and a host of others. No matter how oft-repeated the term “New Orleans miracle” has become, it is a lie.
To other districts around the nation who are considering adopting “the New Orleans miracle”:
Reread this post, and truly consider what it is that you would be getting: A lie packaged to only look appealing from afar. | {
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Update: Football Scoop reports Jones has an offer.
Cincinnati Bearcats coach Butch Jones is the front-runner for the vacant Tennessee head coach job, according to Wes Rucker at Go Vols 24/7. Two days ago, the Vols' search was reportedly down to three candidates -- with Jones not on the list. Jones, meanwhile, was reportedly gone to Colorado before things changed.
Cincy will reportedly have a players meeting early Friday.
Jones has coached the Bearcats since the 2010 season. This year, Jones led Cincinnati to a 9-3 overall record and a 5-2 record in the Big East. The Bearcats will play the Duke Blue Devils in the Belk Bowl on Dec. 27.
Cincinnati is 23-14 in Jones' three years as head coach. The Bearcats were 4-8 in his first season and finished seventh in the Big East, but have won the conference title the last two years.
The Volunteers are trying to replace Derek Dooley, who was fired Nov. 18. Tennessee went 5-7 this season under Dooley. In his three seasons as head coach, the Vols were 15-21 with a 4-19 record in the SEC. His team was 1-14 against the SEC in the past two seasons.
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Look through SB Nation's many excellent college football blogs to find your team's community.
Follow @SBNationCFB | {
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Earlier today, Team Romney (including Romney for President, Romney Victory, and the Republican National Committee) announced that, between October 1st and 17th, they raised a combined total of over $111 million, and still have about $169 million cash on hand — a pretty impressive haul no doubt aided by the general debate-watching public finally getting to meet Mitt Romney without all of the added negative noise from the Obama campaign.
This evening, Team Obama revealed via Twitter their own combined-total fundraising numbers for the first seventeen days of the month:
In the first 17 days of October, 1,251,291 people came together to raise $90,500,000 for the campaign and combined committees. — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 25, 2012
In the entire month of September, Team Obama outraised Team Romney with $181 million to their $170 million, but it looks like the debate season may’ve helped fuel a role-reversal from that trend. Either way, both campaign’s days of chic fundraisers are over and the donations are going to start petering out, and both sides will be looking to spend most of the money in their war chests in the next eleven-ish days. Ohioans — I do not envy you. | {
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By James Ashenhurst
Last updated: February 1st, 2019 |
Love this quote, from Organic Chemistry 1 as a Second Language by David R. Klein (fuller review to come) on organic chemistry and memorization.
You probably know at least one person who has seen one movie more than five times and can quote every line by heart. How can this person do that? It’s not because he or she tried to memorize the movie. The first time you watch a movie, you learn the plot. After the second time, you understand why individual scenes are necessary to develop the plot. After the third time, you understand why the dialogue was necessary to develop each scene. After the fourth time, you are quoting many of the lines by heart. Never at any time did you make an effort to memorize the lines. You know them because they make sense in the grand scheme of the plot. If I were to give you a screenplay for a movie and ask you to memorize as much as you can in 10 hours, you would probably not get very far into it. If, instead, I put you in a room for 10 hours and played the same movie over again five times, you would know most of the movie by heart, without even trying. You would know everyone’s names, the order of the scenes, much of the dialogue, and so on. Organic chemistry is exactly the same. It’s not about memorization. It’s about making sense of the plot, the scenes, and the individual concepts that make up our story
If you had to draw an analogy between a film and a reaction in organic chemistry, how do they map? Here’s my two cents.
Plot – the bonds broken and formed
Characters – the atoms involved in the bond-forming and bond-breaking, with their “personalities” represented by how electron-rich or how electron poor they are. The key “motivation” of the characters is that opposite charges attract, and electrons flow from “rich” to “poor”.
Setting – in cases where the reaction could happen at multiple sites, it’s important to understand why it happens where it happens. In organic chemistry we call this “regioselectivity”. Markovnikoff vs. anti-markovnikoff addition to alkenes is an example.
A second aspect to “setting” is in understanding the stereochemistry of a reaction – that is, why it produces the stereochemical result that it does. Not applicable to all reactions, but many.
Lines – the “lines” are the reaction arrows that show the movement of electrons and the modification of charges.
Quoting it by heart – when you fully understand a reaction, you know the “plot” of a reaction flows naturally from the motivations of the “characters” in their particular “setting”, and describe how the plot moves forward by writing out the correct sequence of “lines”. Furthermore, you even can predict what will happen when this “setting” is changed.
It’s an imperfect analogy, I confess – there’s probably other people out there who could do a better job in translation! Thoughts? | {
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When the UNLV Runnin' Rebels won the 1990 National Championship, it was four years before they closed Fremont Street to vehicle traffic.
The team paraded between the Downtown casinos with many fans surrounding the team here at the Plaza Hotel.
"I remember Tarkanian riding in the back of convertible waving to people," Irvin Putt said.
Putt was a senior at the Bishop Gorman the year Jerry Tarkanian led the Runnin' Rebels to a national title.
At the time the campus was on Maryland Parkway and St. Louis Avenue. It was also the same year Excalibur opened. A gallon of gas cost just $1.10. The county population at the time was just over 756,170.
.Now there are 2.115 million residents.
Putt, who is a huge sports fan, describes a much different aura surrounding the Runnin' Rebels
"With Tarkanian it was we are the small town, it is cute they made the NCAAs," Putt said.
Then the Golden Knights.
"We were just happy to have any kind of team here. Then all of a sudden they start winning and we are in the Stanley Cup Final," Putt said.
He says the two teams have one driving force in common.
"If there is one parallel it is that we both have a chip on their shoulder," Putt said. | {
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Several leaders of militant groups were killed by a group of unidentified armed men in Idlib and Dara’a provinces.
A wave of attacks on field commanders of various armed groups and their bases has been once again spotted on militant-held territories in the northern parts of Syria, where several areas of Idlib province were struck, as well as in the south of the country, where terrorist leaders were attacked in the western areas of Dara’a province.
According to the Step News news agency, today, a group of unidentified armed men attacked one of the bases of the Free Idlib Army, which belonged to the Al-Furqan detachment and was located in the area of Maarrat al-Nu’man city in the south of Idlib. As a result of the attack, commander of the detachment Ahmad Ali al-Hattyb and commander of jihadists, who operate in the north of Hama, were killed.
As it was reported, the attackers arrived by four vehicles. They launched their offensive early in the morning, when almost no one was on the base, as all fighters of the Al-Furqan detachment were on positions in Hama at that moment. Before leaving, the attackers looted the base of militants.
In addition, unknown armed men also attacked a checkpoint of the Ahrar al-Sham terrorist group, located near the administrative border between the provinces of Hama and Idlib. As a result of the attack, one terrorist, Mustafa al-Djidan, was killed. The unidentified group also blew up an explosive device in the town of Binnish, located near the besieged towns of Al Fu’ah and Kafarya, wounding several people.
Moreover, last night, an unsuccessful attempted assassination of a commander of Islamists took place in the city of Nawa in the west of the southern province of Dara’a.
It is still unknown, who is behind these attacks. Some opposition activists accuse agents of the Syrian government, while others blame on the foreign Special Forces.
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